Harry and John Potter: Year 2
by HellIsHere
Summary: Having thwarted a plot for the most powerful dark wizard of all time to be allowed to return, Harry, his brother John and cousin Delilah hoped to return to Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione and have a normal year. So naturally, a sixty foot snake is set loose and Azkaban loses one of its most infamous residents. T because John and Ron swear like sailors. Best read after year 1.
1. The worst birthday

For two young boys, the past twelve months seemed to be both a blur and difficult to believe. They had discovered they were wizards, attended a wizarding school, fought a troll, sent a dragon to Romania and confronted the most powerful dark wizard the world had ever seen for the second time and lived to tell the tale.

Yet strangely enough, they were stuck in a painfully ordinary house, with a room barely big enough for one of them, let alone both of them, especially considering the size of John, the larger of the twins. To top it all off, they were stuck in a house with contained a family who consistently forgot their birthday and their twelfth birthday was not an exception. Their magical cousin who attended their school, Hogwarts did remember, but in the Dursley household, it was little consolation.

Life was monotonous. The three magical youngsters couldn't mention what they really were, for fear of what John donned "supreme muggle retribution" which involved little more than a grounding. Still though, grounding would have made their uninteresting summer lives that much more soul crushingly boring.

The things that they found interesting, their flying broomsticks, potion brewing cauldrons, spellbooks and wands were all locked away in the cupboard under the stairs, which incidentally used to be Harry's bedroom.

To make matters worse, they hadn't received letters from their friends, Ron and Hermione all summer.

On the morning of their twelfth birthday, their uncle Vernon had no birthday wishes, instead he had a berating ready. Harry and John kept owls, a normal custom for wizards due to owls being the most useful type of pet as they would carry mail. The owls were however, still animals. They made noise.

"If you can't control those bloody pigeons, they'll have to go." said Uncle Vernon, whose little patience was wearing thinner than ever.

"They just get bored. If we could let them out for just an hour, maybe two-" Harry started.

"So you can send messages to your freaky little friends? Don't be absurd." Uncle Vernon retorted.

"They're birds! What do you expect, keeping them in cages?" John pointed out. He was always defiant and questioned authority, but the past year at Hogwarts had given him a great deal more confidence, which was saying a lot, considering his attitude to begin with. Not to mention the fact that for a twelve year old, about to enter his second year of Hogwarts (year eight or seventh grade), he was quite large. He wasn't as strong as a grown man, but he was strong enough to not be threatened by his uncle or muggle cousin Dudley at all.

"I expect _you_ to keep control over _your ruddy pets."_ said Uncle Vernon.

"We can do that but only if we're allowed to do what it takes to do so you dipshit." said John.

"You don't get to speak to me like that! Not under my roof!" Uncle Vernon replied, his voice raised.

"You don't get to tell me how to look after _my_ owl. Achilles is just going to get noisier if you keep acting like an ignorant buffoon!" John retorted, unimpressed by his Uncle's attempt to show authority. Having dealt with the likes of Severus Snape, the very strict and intimidating potions master of Hogwarts, his Uncle really wasn't anything to worry over.

"Dad, John's right. They'll listen to John and Harry, but they still do have minds of their own." tried Delilah, Uncle Vernon's magical daughter.

She was somewhat ostracized from her biological family due to her magic, but she still retained hope that they still cared for her. Right now though, they weren't exactly showing it.

"You stay out of this. They aren't getting out of those cages, and that's final!" Uncle Vernon roared, hoping the increased volume would stamp out his authority properly.

"Then don't blame us or the owls if they wake you up. It's your fault." said John, simply.

"I want more bacon mum." said Dudley, saving his father from losing an argument to a twelve year old, though he didn't know it himself.

"There's more in the frying pan sweetums." said Aunt Petunia, hoping to completely avoid the owl argument again.

"You forgot the magic word." said Harry, who immediately realized that he'd made a mistake.

"I meant please! I didn't-" he tried.

"YOU DARE? YOU DARE MENTION YOUR ABNORMALITY IN MY HOUSE? THREATEN DUDLEY? I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY MENTIONS OF YOUR FREAKISH NATURE!" he yelled, swelling up like a bullfrog.

"Alright... alright. Wow." said Harry.

"Now, as you all know, today is a very important day." said Uncle Vernon. John and Harry looked up. Surely not...

"I might be making the biggest deal of my career today." he added.

Of course he'd be talking about that damn dinner party. Some rich contractor and his wife were coming over for dinner, and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get an extremely large order of drills.

"Let's run through our plan for the evening once more. Dudley, what will you be doing?" Uncle Vernon asked.

"I'll wait to answer the door." said Dudley.

"Excellent. Petunia?" Uncle Vernon continued.

"I'll be in the lounge, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home!" said Aunt Petunia. At this point, John had left the room to burst out laughing. Harry and Delilah were considering joining him.

"And _you lot?_ " Uncle Vernon asked nastily.

"We'll be upstairs, making no noise, pretending that we don't exist." said Harry dully.

"Excellent. I'll then pour some drinks, and at eight fifteen-" Uncle Vernon said, letting his sentence hang.

"I'll announce dinner." said Aunt Petunia.

"And I'll offer to lead them to the table." said Dudley.

"My perfect little gentleman!" said Aunt Petunia. John could still be heard rolling on the floor with laughter in the hallway.

"And _you?_ " Uncle Vernon asked.

"We'll be upstairs, making no noise, pretending that we don't exist." said Delilah, sounding very bored.

"Good. Now whilst they're here, we should think of some compliments to pay them, just to make them that much more inclined. Any ideas?" Uncle Vernon asked.

"Vernon tells me you're an absolute master on the golf pitch Mr. Mason. Do tell me where you got your coat Mrs. Mason?" said Aunt Petunia.

"Perfect. Dudley?" Uncle Vernon asked.

"We were told to write an essay at school about our hero. I wrote about _you_ Mr. Mason." said Dudley.

Aunt Petunia lost any semblance of self control and hugged her son, going on about him being a wonderful gentleman and how much the Masons would love him.

John couldn't handle it any more and his laughter seemed to double in volume.

Harry and Delilah were in a similar state and had to duck under the table to hide their own laughter.

"And _you?_ " Uncle Vernon asked.

"We'll be upstairs, making no noise, pretending we don't exist." said Harry, once he'd recovered.

"Too right you will. If all goes well, we'll wake up tomorrow morning, ready to shop for a holiday home, maybe Majorca or maybe Auckland..." said Uncle Vernon.

"Yeah, sounds great. Save me some of whatever you're smoking that's making you think he'll like you by the way!" said John, upon re-entering the room.

Despite Uncle Vernon's very serious mood, Harry and Delilah burst out laughing.

"You keep your mouth shut! Now and especially when the Masons arrive! I don't need you here making me look like a fool!" Said Uncle Vernon.

"Yeah I know, you do a brilliant job of that on your own!" said John, causing Harry and Delilah to laugh harder.

"OUT! UPSTAIRS NOW!" Uncle Vernon roared.

John smirked as he did so. He loved getting on his Uncle's nerves, despite how easy it was.

The rest of the day was spent largely going through the same monotony. Harry was trimming the hedges and John was mowing the lawn, whilst Delilah was helping her mother in the kitchen, albeit in silence. Aunt Petunia was far from happy with Lily's powers, and clearly she was even more furious about her daughter having them.

Delilah, however, didn't understand this dynamic whatsoever and had to ask. She hadn't done anything wrong, and yet for three years, she'd been treated with indifference by her family.

She decided not to open her mouth and outright bemoan it yet - she knew that as of now, she wouldn't be taken seriously. Maybe when she returned after the coming school year, but certainly not now.

Contrary to what one might believe upon observing her interactions with her parents, she did still love them.

However, for now, she and her cousins were working on something they didn't even care about, in order for other people to enjoy the results, before heading off into Harry and John's bedroom for the entire night, where they would have to simply shut up while the rest of the household sucks up to a couple of relative strangers.

Yes, all in all the summer could have gone better thus far, but at least they weren't stuck in the cupboard under the stairs or the garden shed or something similar.

Delilah did have a thought though. While her dad would obviously avoid telling the Masons about Harry or John, she didn't have any idea how he was hiding the fact that he had two children rather than one.

She went to Harry and John with her confusion.

"They probably met after they figured out you're a witch. By the sounds of things, they probably first met while we were at Hogwarts, so they just... I dunno, 'forgot' to say anything about you and just gushed on about Dinky Duddidums instead." John said, causing Delilah to laugh for a moment.

"That sounds about right. Shall we head upstairs? I think we could just play chess or something while dad acts like a suck up for five hours." said Delilah.

"Yeah, let's go. I don't want to hear your dad make that stupid Japanese golfer joke again." said Harry, before the three of them headed up the stairs.

Harry was planning on taking a seat on his bed while Delilah and John sorted out the chessboard or maybe shuffled a deck of cards. One could imagine his surprise when he found someone sitting on it already. However, this wasn't just anyone. It was an odd little creature with massive green eyes the size of a tennis ball, a long, pointy nose, enormous bat-like ears and wearing some sort of pillowcase.

The youngsters didn't know it yet, but this was their first encounter with a house elf.

Harry wanted to ask what it was, but decided that he'd sound rude by asking that.

"Who are you?" he asked instead.

"Harry Potter! I am Dobby sir! Dobby the house elf!" replied Dobby. His voice was extremely squeaky; one could tell that it wasn't a human, but he was still clearly speaking English. Hearing this was a weird sensation to say the least.

"Err... hello Dobby, I'm Harry's brother John, this is our cousin Delilah." said John.

Dobby bowed to them all.

"Dobby is very pleased to meet you sir and Madam!" he said.

"Umm hi. I don't want to be rude or anything, but this isn't a great time for us to be talking to house elves." said Delilah.

"Oh, of course miss, Dobby can understand. It's just.. It is difficult. Dobby is wondering where to begin." said Dobby, referring to why he was there.

"Alright, just take a seat and we can talk." Harry offered, kindly.

To their collective shock, Dobby responded to the offer of a seat by crying. Loudly.

"Dobby! Please don't cry! I didn't mean to offend you or anything!" Harry tried desperately.

"Offend Dobby? Dobby has heard about Harry Potter's bravery, but never his kindness! Never has Dobby been asked to sit down by a wizard...like an equal!" Dobby explained, tearfully.

"You can't have met many wizards who happen to be decent human beings as well then, have you?" John asked.

"No, I haven't. That was an awful thing to say..." said Dobby, before doing something even noisier. He started banging his head against Harry's chest of drawers.

"Dobby! What are you doing? Please just stop!" Harry tried, desperately.

It was too late. Uncle Vernon could be heard stomping up the stairs.

"Dobby, I'm really sorry about this. You'll have to shut up though." John said, before picking Dobby up and stuffing him in the closet.

"What. Are. You. Doing?!" Uncle Vernon asked, trying to keep his voice down, but still showing how angry he was.

"Sorry." Delilah said, lamely, without an explanation.

"One more sound, and you'll wish you'll have never been born. All three of you." Uncle Vernon said, menacingly before heading back down the stairs.

John dragged Dobby out of the closet.

"Dobby, what the hell was that?" John asked.

"Dobby had to punish himself sir. Dobby almost spoke ill of his family." Dobby explained.

"Family?" Delilah asked. She didn't like where this was going.

"The wizard family Dobby is bound to serve until they free him. They has to offer Dobby some clothes for Dobby to be free." said Dobby.

"They sound like a bunch of assholes, whoever they are. Just... don't punish yourself if they're not around, OK?" John asked, feeling genuine concern for the poor creature in front of him.

"Only Dobby's masters can give him commands I'm afraid, sir." said Dobby. John, Delilah and Harry exchanged uncomfortable looks. The family Dobby served seemed more interested in abusing him than giving him work to do.

"So... what are you doing here?" John asked, changing the subject.

"Ah yes! This is most important! Dobby has come to warn you! You must not return to Hogwarts this year!" said Dobby.

"What? Why?" Harry asked.

"There is a plot! A plot to make most terrible things happen! It is not safe at Hogwarts any more!" said Dobby.

"Who's responsible? We can write to the ministry! We can tell Professor Dumbledore too!" Delilah said.

"Can't... say! Can't... say!" Dobby said, clearly very distressed.

"OK, so you can't say, fine. But we're going back to Hogwarts! You saw the kind of people we have to put up with here!" said Harry, referring to Uncle Vernon's berating of them.

"But you are safe here!" said Dobby.

"We can't stay here! Hogwarts is our real home and there are too many people there we care about over there, friends of ours; if there's a plot to make terrible things happen, we've got to keep them safe!" said Harry.

"Friends who don't even write to you?" Dobby challenged.

"Well I... Wait a minute. How did you know I haven't been getting letters?" Harry asked, shrewdly.

"Harry Potter must understand that Dobby felt terrible about this. He had to hit himself with a hammer for this." said Dobby, pulling out what was clearly all Owl-sent letters addressed to number 4, Privet Drive.

"Give us those letters. Now." said John, sternly. Harry noted that he almost sounded like a father telling off his son. Probably because he was keeping in mind that Dobby was treated like dirt and didn't need any further harsh treatment.

"Only if you promise not to go back to school!" said Dobby.

"Like we said, we will be going back. That's that." said Delilah.

"Give us those letters!" Harry said, getting angry.

"No!" Dobby yelled, before rushing down the stairs.

Harry realized with a shock that Dobby was about to threaten them by pissing off Uncle Vernon. Now was _not_ the night for that to be taken lightly. The three twelve year olds rushed down the stairs after Dobby, but it was too late. He was already levitating a pudding that Aunt Petunia had worked on for over an hour.

"Dobby, please!" Harry tried, desperately.

"Harry Potter knows what he must do for Dobby to stop!" Dobby replied.

"I can't!" Harry replied, realizing how screwed he was at this point.

To their horror, and despite Harry's subtle attempts to stop it, Dobby smashed the pudding... straight over Mrs. Mason's head.

Unsurprisingly, they were grounded. However, more surprisingly, Uncle Vernon literally put bars on the windows. One set on Harry and John's window, and another on Delilah's. It was sheer absurdity, but Uncle Vernon was on the warpath.

Harry, John and Delilah were at this point, convinced that they simply weren't going back to Hogwarts.

Worse still, the three of them had received official warnings from the ministry regarding the use of under-aged magic, despite the fact that Dobby was the one who used the levitation charm.

They were in trouble with the government, and had seemingly lost the chance to return to Hogwarts.

 _What a stinking shit pile of a birthday_ John bitterly thought to himself the day after.

However, things would take a dramatic upturn that night. After they had fallen asleep, they woke up at roughly one in the morning, hearing some kind of engine. Harry looked outside the window to see a familiar face, one that belonged to arguably his favourite person in the world apart from his brother and cousin. Ronald Weasley. But he was sat down. At a first floor level. In a flying car.

John looked on and saw Fred and George there too.

"Hey Harry, John!" said Ron.

"What the..." John started.

"We're rescuing you you dolt!" said George.

"OK... but the Dursleys can't hear a thing! Apart from Delilah of course. But in case you've not noticed, there are bars on the window?" John pointed out.

"You've forgotten who I've got with me." said Ron, grinning. On cue, Fred tied a winch and hook to the bars, and revved the engine until the bars were torn clean off the wall, very loudly. Harry listened out for the Dursleys, but thankfully, they weren't woken up.

"We've got to get our school stuff, it's locked in the cupboard under the stairs!" John whispered.

"Ah, well we've learned a neat little muggle trick!" said George, pulling a paperclip out of his pocket.

"We're going to pick the lock." said Fred.

"Awesome, I'll go get Delilah." said John.

Moments later, Fred and George returned with their school equipment, and John returned with Delilah.

"You weren't joking..." she remarked, looking shocked.

"Hey Delilah." said Ron, grinning broadly at her.

"Hi Ron..." said Delilah, still unable to get over her shock.

"Come on, let's get in the car. We'll have to squeeze in, it's only a five-seater." said John.

They climbed into the car, but unfortunately, they heard loud hoots from behind them. They'd forgotten Hedwig and Achilles!

"Those ruddy owls!" They heard Uncle Vernon yell.

Somehow, Uncle Vernon had managed to arrive in their room quick enough to catch them putting Hedwig and Achilles into the car.

"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" he roared, but thankfully, his attempts to grab them were in vain, and the car had already flown off.

"See you next summer!" Harry yelled at them, laughing as they went.

"Preferably not though!" John added.

The six of them began to chat animatedly, but eventually Ron had to ask what the deal was with the lack of responses.

They explained to him about Dobby intercepting their letters and his appearance at the house.

"That's pretty dodgy. But then again, house elves tend to belong to really rich families as well. Plus, this sounds like it could be a joke as well. Can you think of anyone who wouldn't want you back at school and would want to trick you into not returning?" asked George.

"Draco Malfoy." said Ron and John simultaneously.

"Lucius Malfoy's kid? Yeah, makes sense. If half the stuff Dad's said about Lucius Malfoy is true, and if _any_ of what Ron's said about mini-Malfoy is true, then he'd be the type to do that." said Fred.

"And I can definitely imagine him being the kind of rich kid who has a servant who he clearly treats like dirt." said Delilah, remembering how pitiful Dobby looked.

"Yeah, I mean most richer wizards have started treating house elves better since You Know Who vanished, but I reckon the Malfoys would stick to the old ways. Namely treating house elves like shit, beating them and making them feel subordinate all the time." said George.

"Plus, we already know how he treats people he thinks are inferior to him." said Ron, grumpily thinking about the way the Malfoy family treated his own family.

"Oh well, we know he's just jealous that Harry's clearly a better Quidditch player!" said John, remembering the look on Malfoy's face when he first saw Harry on his top of the line Nimbus 2000 racing broom.

The rest of the journey was characterized by more light-hearted conversation about the Weasley's summer, how Hermione was doing based off the letters she'd sent Ron's way, what to expect at the Weasley household, known as the burrow, and a few other everyday things (for wizards) such as Quidditch, the rumors that Nimbus would be releasing a new model some time soon, and general talk about who had the best team in the buildup to the world cup in two years' time.

They did finally arrive at Ron's home in Ottery St. Catchpole, a small mixed wizard and muggle town in Devon.

Ron was the first to speak.

"Well, here we are."


	2. Weasley life

**A/N: Much longer chapter here, the first story and the first chapter of this story were mostly setup. Get used to these longer chapters, I personally enjoy writing longer chapters, but I don't do them unless I think they're necessary. Hopefully you enjoy them too!**

Ron, Fred and George told Harry, John and Delilah to be quiet whilst getting into the Weasley household, and they all tiptoed as they went. Unfortunately, Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen. She looked positively furious.

"Ah." said Fred.

"Oh dear." said George.

"I SUPPOSE YOU'RE VERY PROUD OF YOURSELVES?" she bellowed, causing Ron, Fred and George, all of whom were taller than her appear to shrink before Harry, Delilah and John's eyes.

"NO NOTE? BEDS EMPTY? CAR GONE? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SEEN! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" Mrs. Weasley yelled.

"Died? Mum, don't you think that's a little over-dramatic?" George asked.

Harry and John caught Ron's eye. They immediately knew that now was not the time to test Mrs. Weasley.

"OVER-DRAMATIC? YOU FLEW AN ENCHANTED CAR A HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OVERNIGHT WITHOUT ANYONE KNOWING!" Mrs. Weasley roared.

George shrank back again.

Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry, John and Delilah.

"Of course I don't blame any of _you_ dears. In fact, if we didn't hear back from you for another day or two, my husband and I were planning on getting you ourselves." said Mrs. Weasley, who had managed to turn from a raging bull of a mother into a very nurturing figure. John had no idea how to react.

"They'd put bars on their windows mum!" said Ron.

"Your best hope right now is that I don't put bars on _your_ windows Ronald Weasley!" Mrs. Weasley told Ron sternly.

John smirked at Ron, who glared back at him.

"Come now, time for some breakfast." said Mrs. Weasley, who walked to the other side of the kitchen to get some eggs.

"Wow." said John.

"Yep. That's mum in a nutshell." said Ron, as Fred and George sat down at the table.

"Ron, I am glad you came and rescued us, but I don't think I can blame your mum right now." said Delilah.

" _Yeah, yeah._ Come on, let's eat." he replied, as they joined Fred and George.

Soon enough, They were all joined by Percy, Ron's oldest brother still living in the burrow.

"Good morning mother. Ah, Harry, John, Delilah, when did you arrive?" Percy said, politely.

"About ten minutes ago." said John quickly, hoping to avoid sending Mrs. Weasley into another tirade.

"I see, well it's good to have you over." said Percy.

Just then, they were joined by one more Weasley, who Harry, John and Delilah vaguely recognized as Ron's sister, who they saw previously just once at platform Nine and three quarters.

Harry was the first to notice and greet her.

"Hi! I'm Harry." he said.

Her eyes widened and she mumbled something which Harry guessed was 'hello', before sitting down at the opposite end of the table from him.

"And I'm Delilah, nice to meet you." said Delilah, who she was sat next to.

"I'm John, what's your name?" John asked.

"Ginny." she said quietly, casting sideways glances at Harry.

John looked at Ron and they both smirked. Ginny had the world's most obvious crush on Harry.

Harry leaned over and whispered to Ron.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"Ginny's... a big fan." said Ron.

He and Harry looked over at Ginny, who accidentally slipped her elbow into the butter dish.

"You don't say." said Harry.

The rest of breakfast, however was one of Harry's favorite meals ever, short of the Hogwarts Halloween feast (though it was interrupted by a troll last year) Mrs. Weasley had put four eggs and seven sausages, alongside a lot of toast and some orange juice to boot.

"Mrs. Weasley, this stuff is great!" said John, who had finished his food off remarkably quickly. Harry could have sworn that he never saw food on John's plate; only a whirlwind involving a knife, fork and John's hands.

"Thank you dear, I have some more sausages if you're still hungry?" Mrs. Weasley offered.

Harry rolled his eyes. Mrs. Weasley may know about Ron's appetite, but clearly she didn't know about John's yet.

"Yes please!" said John, who was in turn given a full plate of sausages.

John finished off the remainder of available sausages in yet another series of blurring motions, and Ron did the same.

Before Ron could open his mouth, presumably to get Harry, John and Delilah to come up to his room, the door opened up, and Harry, Delilah and John for the first time, met Arthur Weasley, a tall, balding man with hair as red as his children.

"Good morning everyone!" he said.

"Hey dad." said the Weasley children present.

"Ahh, Harry, John and Delilah I presume?" he asked, before shaking their hands one after another.

"Yeah, that's us." said Harry.

"Absolutely brilliant to meet you all. When did you get here?" asked Mr. Weasley.

John did exactly what he did earlier with Percy and told him before Mrs. Weasley could interrupt. The conversation went along as it normally would in the Weasley household, before Mr. Weasley began talking about work.

"What a night... nine raids!" he said.

"Raids?" John asked.

"Ah, well I work in the ministry of magic, in the misuse of muggle artifacts office. We were conducting raids to catch out wizards who used magical objects to take advantage of or harm muggles." said Mr. Weasley.

"Dad really loves muggles. He finds them fascinating." said Ron.

"How could I not? I mean, all the ways they've come up with in place of magic! Brilliant!" said Mr. Weasley.

"So does the misuse of muggle artifacts office do low-level stuff? Like say... stopping wizards from selling muggles trick-magical items?" Delilah asked.

"Yes, you'd be surprised how many wizards do things like that... even enchanting muggle objects to do things they aren't meant to do." Mr. Weasley explained.

"Like cars for instance?" Mrs. Weasley interjected.

"C-Cars dear?" Mr. Weasley stuttered.

"Yes. Cars. Imagine, a wizard coming home with a car, and telling his wife that he wanted to take it apart and see how it worked. Only to find out he was enchanting it to make it fly!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"Well the law says that as long as I wouldn't _intend_ to fly it... there's that loophole." said Mr. Weasley.

"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" Mrs. Weasley retorted, raising her voice.

"Err... Well, yes, but I haven't flown it, so why-" Mr. Weasley started.

"Your sons flew it! Fred, George and Ron flew to Surrey and back last night, that's how Harry, Delilah and John really got here!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Did you really? How did it go?" Mr. Weasley asked, before realizing that his wife had just started swelling up like a bullfrog.

"C'mon guys, let's just head upstairs to my room." Ron said to Harry, Delilah and John, before Mrs. Weasley brought the kitchen down with her voice.

They climbed all the stairs in the burrow to the attic, which served as Ron's bedroom. All of the walls in his room were bright orange, and there were posters with moving images of the same seven wizards in orange uniforms.

"Your Quidditch team?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. The Chudley Cannons, ninth in the league." said Ron.

The three visitors looked around to see the rest of the room with some familiar things. Scabbers lay asleep on Ron's windowsill, spellbooks were scattered here and there, his Hogwarts trunk was to be found at the foot of his bed, and he saw some letters, most of them presumably from Hermione, with a few from Seamus, Dean and Neville.

"I know it's not much, but it's home. What do you think?" Ron asked, uncertainly.

John thought about what he'd seen of the house. The clock which showed the whereabouts of each Weasley family member, the kitchen utensils which would wash themselves, the homey, familial feeling of the house in general gave off a very good impression.

"It's the best house I've been in." said John, smiling broadly.

"I saw the pots and pans washing themselves in the kitchen. Does your mum put spells on them for that?" Delilah asked.

"Yeah. Mum's great at household spells." said Ron.

"Honestly, I don't see why you say this isn't much. This is so much better than _my_ family's house..." said Delilah, distastefully remembering number 4, Privet drive.

"You've got loads of space outside as well. Privet Drive... well you saw. Barely space to do anything outside." said Harry.

Ron was clearly feeling relief at his friends' collective opinion of his home.

Before he could suggest some games of exploding snap or chess, there was a knock at the door.

"Ronald, Errol's here with some letters, one of them's yours. Also our Hogwarts letters have arrived. Actually, Harry's, Delilah's and John's are here too. Somehow Dumbledore knows you're here." came the voice of Percy.

"Blimey. How would he... never mind, it's Dumbledore." said John.

"Let's go downstairs." said Ron.

The four of them did so, and opened their Hogwarts letters, alongside the other Weasley children. It was largely the same information as last year, though it corresponded to the fact that they were second years now, not first years. However, the book list made them raise their eyebrows.

 _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_ by Miranda Goshawk  
 _Break with a Banshee_ by Gilderoy Lockheart  
 _Gadding with Ghouls_ by Gilderoy Lockheart  
 _Holidays with Hags_ by Gilderoy Lockheart  
 _Travels with Trolls_ by Gilderoy Lockheart  
 _Voyages with Vampires_ by Gilderoy Lockheart  
 _Wanderings with Werewolves_ by Gilderoy Lockheart  
 _Year with the Yeti_ by Gilderoy Lockheart

"OK... that's a lot of books by this Lockheart dude." said John.

"Yeah, the new Defence teacher must be a massive fan of his. It's a little bit creepy actually." said Harry.

"Who exactly is Gilderoy Lockheart?" Delilah asked.

"In short, he's a famous wizard who's supposedly done a bunch of crazy stuff like dealt with trolls, vampires, werewolves, all that stuff. He's supposed to be pretty powerful." said Ron.

"Given his book titles, he sounds a little bit of a showman." said John.

"There's an understatement. But don't tell mum. She's a big fan of his too." said Ron.

"This lot won't come cheap mum. Lockheart's books are pretty expensive." said George, with a worried look towards her mother.

"We'll manage." said Mrs. Weasley. John noticed that she herself looked worried.

"We can get all of this tomorrow. Do you all have plans for today?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Yeah, we were going to take Harry and John to play a bit of Quidditch, but Delilah, what do you want to do?" asked Fred.

"Well I was going to write to Hermione." said Delilah.

"Sounds good. So we're off to Diagon Alley tomorrow?" George asked.

"Yes George. But don't think I've forgotten what you did this morning. In fact I have every intention of having you de-gnome the garden for the rest of the summer. You two Ron, Fred." said Mrs. Weasley, sternly.

"Fair enough." said Fred.

Fred, George and Ron showed Harry and John to a hill relatively nearby which overlooked some wild, untouched and secluded grassland where they all got on their brooms and started flying. Harry and John hadn't felt this free in months. Though they couldn't play with real Quidditch balls, in case a snitch or bludgers escaped to the nearby village, which would be hard to explain to the resident muggles, they still managed to replicate Quidditch well enough with some apples, which they eventually proceeded to wash and eat.

* * *

They returned to the burrow to find some lemonade which was presumably made by Mrs. Weasley. John and Ginny were the last to leave the living room with all the lemonade in it, and John took this opportunity to test whether or not Ginny was genuinely as shy as she was around Harry normally or not.

"So, you're off to Hogwarts with us this year?" John asked.

"Yeah. About time, I've been getting just a little bit more bored each year since Bill left." said Ginny, with a surprising amount of confidence, given how she was acting with Harry in the room.

"Yeah, that makes sense. By the way, I don't want to overstep my boundaries, since I don't know you as well as Ron, but... what is it with you around Harry? It's not a secret that you fancy him but..." John said, letting his statement hang.

"I don't know, I just... can't control it. Any time I'm around him, I just can't do anything right! It's so annoying!" Ginny whined.

"Well honestly, I can't help you there then if you can't control it. All I can say is remember that he's not some god-like hero, he's just another guy going to Hogwarts. At least that's how he wants to be treated." said John.

"I... I never thought about it that way. But after thinking of him as some sort of supreme hero all my life, It'll be a while before I start acting like a human being around him. Thanks though." said Ginny.

"Yeah well, glad I could help." said John.

* * *

The trip to Diagon Alley the next morning began with Mrs. Weasley declaring that they'd use the floo network.

"What's the floo network?" Harry asked.

"It's a way of magical transport. You get into a fireplace with some powder and you sort of... teleport wherever you want to go." said Ron.

"Cool! How do you do it?" John asked.

"You take a handful of powder, step into a fireplace connected to the network, say the name of the place you're going and drop the powder. That's it." said Mrs. Weasley.

"I'll do it first, just watch and you'll see it's not that hard." said Ron.

Ron picked up a handful of powder and did exactly what Mrs. Weasley had just described.

"See? Not anything too scary. Harry, you can go next. Just remember to speak very, very clearly." said Mrs. Weasley.

Not anything scary... if they weren't wizards, they would have lost their minds... Ron had seemingly just burst into flames!

Harry gulped and walked into the fireplace, taking some powder.

Unfortunately, when Harry took a deep breath, he accidentally breathed in some ash, causing him to cough as he tried to say 'Diagon Alley'. This didn't lead him to Diagon Alley at all. Harry found himself sucked through what felt like a tube, landing in a fireplace which clearly wasn't in Diagon Alley. He was in some sort of... Antique store?

It was very dark, and the store was filled with very frightening looking artifacts. Harry didn't like the look of this place at all. He also knew instinctively that he shouldn't be there. He looked at the window to see the sign "Borgin and Burke's".

He had no idea where he was in relation to the Weasleys and his brother and cousin either. His heart began to pound when he heard someone walk into the shop, and he decided to crouch under a (comparatively) clean, innocent looking teacher-style desk. It looked startlingly similar to Professor Snape's desk...

He heard another voice, presumably the shopkeepers greet the person who walked in. There were three sets of footsteps, so presumably there were two potential customers.

"Good morning Mr. Malfoy, are you here to buy or sell?" came the shopkeeper's very oily voice.

 _Malfoy? All the more reason to not be seen._ Harry thought to himself.

"Selling, Mr. Borgin." said Mr. Malfoy.

The smile was wiped off Borgin's face. Obviously he would have preferred a customer as rich as Lucius Malfoy to be buying his wares.

"As you may know, the ministry are conducting raids. I have some objects that may be ah... _embarrassing_ shall we say?" said Mr. Malfoy.

"Of course sir, come with me to the desk and we can negotiate." said Borgin, as Mr. Malfoy did so.

Harry heard Draco Malfoy walking too close to his hiding spot for comfort, but thankfully, he had taken interest in what looked like a desiccated old hand.

"This looks interesting." Came his cold, drawling voice.

"Ah yes, the hand of glory. Best friend of thieves and plunderers, your son has fine taste sir." said Borgin.

Harry could now see Mr. Malfoy, and noticed how similar his son looked to him. They also had similar voices. Cold, drawling, aloof and uninterested in most conversations.

"I should hope my son amounts to more than a thief or plunderer." Mr. Malfoy said shortly.

"No offense meant sir, no offense meant." said Mr. Borgin.

"Though if your grades do not pick up Draco, that may be all you amount to." said Mr. Malfoy, causing Harry to grin broadly.

"It's the teachers father! They all have their favourites! Hermione Granger and Delilah Dursley-" Malfoy junior began.

"I would have expected you to be ashamed of yourself, being beaten in every test by two girls who have no magical background whatsoever." Mr. Malfoy snapped.

Harry resisted the urge to laugh.

"Yeah, but the teachers all love Harry Potter too, they let him on the Gryfindor Quidditch team, but he's not even that good, he's just famous..." said Malfoy, changing the subject from academics, so as not to be embarrassed further by Hermione and Delilah who weren't even there.

"That I can agree with, but you needn't worry. I have something planned for the Slytherin team which should certainly put a damper in the staff's apparent liking for Potter.

"His brother's probably going to try out too." Malfoy grumbled.

Harry thought about this for a moment. John and Harry hadn't talked about John possibly playing, but during their flying lessons, John was arguably as good at Harry at simply flying. He would definitely talk to John about it if he could find them. A thought then suddenly crossed Harry's mind. If Malfoy was here with his dad, then Diagon Alley couldn't be too far, surely? Then again, they could be out for anything. His fears were dissuaded when Mr. Malfoy spoke up again.

"No matter. I will be able to buy your broom today, just after your spellbooks." he said.

Mr. Malfoy and Borgin concluded their negotiations, and Borgin led the two Malfoys out of the shop.

Harry seized his chance and snuck out of the shop, though he could have sworn Borgin noticed him.

His heart gave a jolt when he heard a familiar, booming voice.

"Harry! What d'yeh think yeh're doin' down here?"

Harry looked around to see Hagrid, Hogwarts' gigantic gamekeeper.

"Hagrid! I made a mistake on the Floo network, where are we?" Harry asked.

"We're in Knockturn Alley. Come on, let's get you out of here." said Hagrid.

When they exited Knockturn Alley, Hagrid stopped and looked Harry in the eye.

"Harry, I get that yeh were there by accident, but yeh can' go skulkin' round Knockturn Alley. It's a dodgy place." said Hagrid, with a great deal of concern in his eyes.

"I understand. But Hagrid, what were you doing there?" Harry asked.

"I was lookin' for flesh eatin' slug repellant. They've got inter the school cabbages." said Hagrid.

"Flesh eating slugs eating cabbage?" Harry asked, confused.

"The ruddy things eat just about everything." said Hagrid, who led him into the centre of Diagon Alley.

Harry looked around and saw some familiar faces. Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown, Mandy Brocklehurst, Hannah Abbott were all there.

"Listen Hermione, I'd love to stay and chat a bit more, but Harry's made a mistake in the Floo network and- oh there you are!" came John's voice.

Harry turned and saw John and his bushy haired, extremely studious best friend Hermione.

"Hello there John, Hermione!" said Hagrid.

"Hey Hagrid. Where exactly did you find Harry?" John asked.

"Knockturn Alley. Believe me when I say yeh shouldn't go down there." said Hagrid darkly.

"Harry, what exactly did you do to get yourself there?" Hermione asked.

"I coughed when I said Diagon Alley." said Harry, simply.

"Easy mistake to make I guess. Anyway, I was just telling Hermione I wanted to try out for the Quidditch team. Where's the Quidditch store?" John asked her.

"It's over there by the Apothecary. Have you been to Gringotts yet?" Hermione asked.

"No, the Weasleys, Delilah and I were just looking for Harry." said John.

"Speaking of, there they are! Yeh're in good hands now, so I'll just be off." said Hagrid.

"See you at school Hagrid!" said Hermione, before the Weasleys and Delilah joined them

"Oh goodness Harry, we'd hoped you only went one grate too far." said Mrs. Weasley.

"Don't worry, I'm fine Mrs. Weasley. So, we're heading to Gringotts now?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Oh and you must be Hermione dear, it's wonderful to meet you!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"It's good to meet you too. My parents are here with me, they were just looking around the book store when I spotted John." said Hermione.

"OK, well we'll go to Gringotts and meet you back at Flourish and Blotts then." said John.

"Alright, I'll see you soon then." said Hermione, who headed back inside to meet her parents.

Harry and John felt very awkward when they saw the small pile of money in the Weasley vault, and felt even worse when they took out their own money. John especially, since he took out enough money for a racing broom too.

Harry and John found out that the ministry had put money in their vault to support Delilah as well, so their vault was even more full than it normally would be.

They all headed back into Flourish and Blotts, which was much more full than it was when they had left Hermione and her parents there.

John found Hermione and before he could ask what was going on, she answered.

"It's Gilderoy Lockheart!" she said excitedly, before leading everyone further into the shop.

They watched and listened as Gilderoy Lockheart signed some of his books, talking about his adventures, before he spotted Harry.

"It can't be... Harry Potter!" he said, before Lockheart's photographer pulled harry towards Lockheart.

"Nice big smile Harry, we're about to make the front page." Lockheart said through his gleaming white teeth, as photos were taken of him and Harry.

"Ladies and gentlemen what an extraordinary moment this is! When young Harry came into Flourish and Blotts today to purchase my books, he had no idea that he'd be leaving with my entire collected works... free of charge!" said Lockheart, to a thunderous round of applause.

"How did you know I was here to buy your books?" Harry asked.

"An excellent question Harry! Of course my books being offered to you for free is a wonderful gift, but I am also here to announce a better one! One I offer to the entirety of our younger generation! Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that I shall be teaching young Harry and his peers in Defence against the Dark arts this year at Hogwarts!" said Lockheart.

Harry inwardly groaned. Maybe this Lockheart character was powerful, but his attitude...

Harry made his way over to his friends, and handed his collection to Ron.

"Take them, I'll buy my own set." Harry muttered.

"Come on Harry, I can't let you-"Ron began.

"No, seriously, just have them." said Harry.

"Uhh... if you're sure." said Ron, uncomfortably.

Unfortunately, Knockturn Alley wasn't the last time Harry would see Draco Malfoy that day. He was at Flourish and Blotts too.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you Potter? The famous Harry Potter can't even go to a book store without making the damn front page!" He snarled.

"Bugger off Malfoy, we've got better things to do than deal with your shit." said John dismissively.

"Yeah, Harry didn't want that at all!" Ginny said angrily.

Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

"Look Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend! Sounds about right that she'd be one of the Weasley riffraff." said Malfoy.

Ginny blushed furiously.

Before Ron or John could spit back a retort, Draco's father arrived.

"Now now Draco, no need for hostilities. We meet at last Mr. Potter. I am Lucius Malfoy." said Mr. Malfoy, shaking Harry's hand.

"Forgive me." said Mr. Malfoy, before brushing some of Harry's hair away from his scar.

"Your scar is legend. As of course is the wizard who gave it to you." he said.

"Voldemort killed my parents. He wasn't anything but a murderer." said Harry defiantly.

"Clearly, you must have some courage to be able to say his name in public." said Mr. Malfoy.

"No need to be afraid of a bloody name. I'd get it if you were afraid of Voldemort himself, but being afraid of his name is like sticking your head in the sand. Totally useless. I know loads of wizards have been taught not to say his name, but that shit has to stop." said John.

"You have an interesting perspective Mr. Potter. I look forward to further meetings." said Mr. Malfoy.

* * *

After a tension-filled confrontation between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy, the Weasleys, Hermione, Harry, Delilah and John finished the rest of their shopping, with John purchasing his own Nimbus 2000 racing broom. The rumors were true that the Nimbus 2001 was being released soon, but John didn't want to wait a few days for the broom or pre-order it. He just wanted his broom then and there. Also, he considered that the 2001 would be a better broom, the difference wasn't big enough to warrant a wait.

The next day, Harry, Delilah, Ron and John met up with Hermione once more at Diagon Alley, though accompanied by Percy for the sake of someone older and responsible being there. Percy was talking to a Ravenclaw prefect nearby, while the others discussed John's potential inclusion in the Quidditch team, after a day of ice-cream, browsing and catching up.

"You really think you could make it on the team? What position are you thinking of? Beater?" Ron asked.

"I thought about it, I mean I'm built like one, but I honestly want to play chaser." said John.

"Good luck. I mean Angelina, Katie and Alicia know what they're doing." said Harry.

"That is true, but as much as I hate to admit it, because this will only feed John's ego more, but based on our flying lessons last year, John is every bit as good a flyer as you Harry. And most people agree that you might be the best flyer on the Gryffindor team." said Hermione.

"What ego? Who said I had an ego?" John asked sarcastically.

"Well we'll just have to wait and see. I'll send an owl to Oliver, see if he lets you try out." said Harry.

"Cheers Harry." said John.

"Anyway, I'm going home now, but I'll see you all at school!" said Hermione, who was headed towards the Diagon Alley floo network station.

"Yeah, we'll see you then." said Ron.

Just then, Delilah spotted a newspaper boy yelling about something in the middle of Diagon alley. He was carrying a few copies of the Daily prophet.

"Everyone, you need to buy a copy of the Prophet now! Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban!"

 **A/N: Don't worry about the cliffhanger - I'll be posting the next chapter very, very soon. It's about halfway done already.**


	3. Floo powder and Flying cars

Eleven years in Azkaban could do a lot to a man's psychological well-being. Sirius Black was not one of them. The knowledge of his innocence kept him sane. Bitter and furious at the world, but still sane. One evening, a visit from a ministry official to check up on the security at Azkaban marked a very important day for Sirius.

"Excuse me sir, could I borrow your prophet? I haven't done a crossword in years." said Sirius.

The official looked surprised, before warily handing his copy over to Sirius. The dementors didn't look too pleased, but they allowed it.

Sirius had every intention of doing nothing but the crossword, but the front page's headline and date caught his eye. It was 1992! Harry and John had been at Hogwarts for an entire year, and he'd not done a thing to help them! Granted, he was in prison, but this was Harry and John...

He thought long and hard about how to escape the blasted place before, but to no avail. This time though, with the extra motivation, he had a stroke of genius. He morphed into his animagus form of a dog, and the lack of food over the years had made him skinny enough to slip through the bars. The dementors couldn't even sense him, since as far as they were concerned, this was just a dog. He had no idea why he didn't think of this before.

Sirius began to think of Wormtail, the traitorous former friend of his, but shook those thoughts away. Harry and John were the priority. He knew Hogwarts was a great place, and one of the best schools in the world, let alone wizarding schools, but he also knew that the understanding of muggle customs was lacking. Muggle studies was nice and all, but he felt that the school could use some proper teaching of muggle life.

What better way to do so than sports? Sirius immediately thought of sports like rugby, cricket, hockey, football, basketball among others, and even though he knew Harry and John were being raised by muggles (muggles he hated, but still muggles), they could always use some extra sport in their life. Sports brought people together, it was a point of conversation, and it was a social activity, as well as good for general health.

Sirius' plan was finally formulated. Once he'd found a suitably discreet location after simply walking out of the Azkaban doors as a dog, he morphed back into his human form and apparated to a secluded location near Diagon Alley. He then transformed back into his dog form, and headed straight for Gringotts.

Gringotts was normally an odd place, but seeing a dog there, acting like it had a purpose? That was positively bizarre.

One of the goblins decided to address the issue.

"Someone please get that dog out of here." he said.

Another goblin got off his chair and temporarily abandoned his work to do so.

Sirius led the goblin to a dark, secluded part of the Gringotts complex before transforming.

"Well well well... what would a mass murderer be doing in our bank?" he asked, not panicking at all.

"Nice to see you too Griphook. No alarms? No calls for help over a mass murderer?" Sirius asked bitterly. He was surprised though. He expected to have to restrain Griphook and explain himself.

"Honestly, I don't care if you've killed a hundred wizards. We goblins never cared much at all about your drama-filled affairs." said Griphook.

"Good. Well to get straight to the point, I want to make a donation, an anonymous one to Hogwarts. Five million Galleons, straight from my vault. And I want to attach an anonymous letter as well." said Sirius.

"Such a large donation might raise eyebrows. What's in it for me?" Griphook asked, showing every one of his sharp, yellow teeth.

"There are a couple of goblin artifacts in my vault. A helmet and shield. If you can move this money for me, they're both yours." said Sirius.

"Alright Black, you have yourself a deal." said Griphook, before pulling out a quill and a piece of parchment from his pocket.

"Write your letter." he said, before Sirius did just that.

* * *

The very next day, Albus Dumbledore was sat in his office, preparing for the upcoming school year, along with the school governors, before a knock came at his door.

"Who is it?" Dumbledore asked, feeling just a little bit more wary, given the recent news of the escape of Sirius Black.

"It's me Albus. We have a visitor from Gringotts." came the voice of Minerva McGonagall.

"Alright, send him in Minerva." said Dumbledore.

"Good morning Professor, governors. There's been an anonymous donation made to Hogwarts. It's five million galleons." said the Gringotts representative.

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in surprise. Hogwarts had received donations in the past, but he couldn't remember the last time such an inordinate amount of money was given to the school anonymously.

"Has any information been sent along with this donation?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes. the donor sent this letter as well." said the official, before handing Dumbledore the letter, and leaving.

Dumbledore read the letter aloud to the governors. Lucius Malfoy was looking particularly interested. This donor may have matched his own wealth if he or she had five million galleons to just... give away.

 _Professor Dumbledore,_

 _I want to stay anonymous, but I know the importance of education, so consider this a gift. You and the governors can do what you see fit with it, but if you're interested, I have my own suggestion._

 _Wizards these days are getting more and more removed from the muggle world. I think that's ridiculous, because we're all humans at the end of the day. Now I don't expect us to break the Statue of secrecy or anything, but since we as wizards and witches have an extra dimension to our lives, we should make an effort to learn more about muggle customs and lifestyles. Muggle studies is great, don't get me wrong, I did it for my OWLs, but I think Hogwarts could do with some muggle sports being implemented. I'm thinking football and rugby. Any others you and the governors can come up with could also help, but the ones I mentioned in my opinion are the most social and offer the most health benefits._

 _What better way to try and bridge the gap between muggles and wizards than sport?_

 _If the idea falls flat, then no harm done, I have a hell of a lot more money._

 _Now again, consider this money the school's, not mine, and you are allowed to disagree with me. But I hope you'll consider my suggestion._

 _Thanks,_

 _A friend._

"How absurd! There are surely better ways to spend such money than to cater to _muggles_!" Lucius Malfoy said immediately.

A couple of the governors nodded in agreement.

However, the rest of the governors did not agree with Malfoy in the slightest.

"This donor has hit the nail on the head, whether you like it or not Lucius. I for one fully support his decision." said another governor. Before long, the decision was made that football and rugby would be added to Hogwarts' offerings. Malfoy and two other governors refused to cooperate, but enough of the governors, and Dumbledore agreed to put it forward and make it happen for the new school year.

* * *

Life at the burrow continued as it normally would (as normal as was possible for a house which contained a ghoul in the attic, self-washing dishes and Fred and George Weasley), until September the first arrived.

Unfortunately, the Weasleys had left the burrow slightly late, and they all had to rush to London. One by one, the Weasleys and Delilah ran through the barrier, leaving Harry, John and Ron. However when they tried to run through the barrier, they simply crashed into it, attracting the attention of a lot of nearby muggles.

"What the hell?" John asked, slightly dazed.

Harry looked at the clock.

"The train! It leaves at exactly eleven o'clock! We've missed it!" Harry exclaimed.

"Wait a second... if the barrier's shut, then maybe mum and dad can't get back!" said Ron.

"We should probably wait by the car then." said Harry.

Ron and John looked at each other.

"The car eh?" John asked.

Surely enough, the three boys found themselves flying the car over King's cross station, trunks and owls in the back seat next to John, heading towards the tracks they knew led to Hogwarts.

"Ron, you should realize that muggles don't normally see a lot of flying cars!" Harry said.

Ron nodded and turned a switch next to the steering wheel.

"What was that?" John asked.

"The invisibility booster." said Ron, smugly.

"Your dad's awesome." said John, simply.

"OK, so now all we need to do is find the train, we can't be too far behind, can we?" Harry asked.

"Look! There it is!" said Ron.

Sure enough, just ahead of them was a beautiful, scarlet steam-powered train.

"Man, everyone's going to love this." said John.

"Love what?" Harry asked.

"Us. Flying into school in a car!" said John.

"Blimey, you're right!" said Ron, smirking.

"Hermione and Delilah are probably worried sick though." Harry pointed out.

"It's OK, they'll probably laugh it off with the rest of us when we arrive." said Ron.

"This is Hermione and Delilah we're talking about. Them, along with Percy will probably lecture us." said John, laughing slightly.

"Yeah, you're right." said Ron.

"Anyway, everyone's been yammering on about this Sirius Black bloke. Who the hell is he?" John asked.

Ron looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering.

"He's a mass murderer. He killed thirteen muggles with a single curse, and he was one of You-Know-Who's followers. What's even scarier is that he's the first person in history to escape from Azkaban." said Ron.

"Blimey... That's... yikes." said John.

"Yeah, and they'll probably beef up the security at Hogwarts. Maybe some security trolls and stuff." said Ron.

"At least we don't have to fight these ones." John quipped, causing Ron and Harry to chuckle.

Eventually the three of them arrived in the Hogwarts grounds, and Ron was planning on landing somewhere close to Hagrid's hut, but-

"Watch out for that tree!"

It was too late. However, it seemed like the tree bended towards the car as it flew by. In fact that was exactly what it did. The tree then proceeded to attack the car savagely with its many branches and twigs, but fortunately, Ron managed to drive the car out of the tree.

"What the hell? What's the point of even having a tree like that on a school? Fuck me!" said John, who was livid.

"Probably guarding something like Fluffy last year." said Harry.

"Yeah I guess." John huffed, still angry at the presence of the potentially lethal tree on school grounds.

"Come on, the feast might have started." said Ron.

The three boys ran off into the castle, towards the great hall, hoping to arrive just in time. They weren't to arrive at the great hall that night, however.

Argus Filch, the caretaker of the school found them.

"Well well well... three boys who definitely didn't arrive by train. I hoped I'd be the one to find you." said Filch.

Harry, Ron and John looked at each other uncomfortably. Did the staff already know about the car?

"I'm sure Professor Snape would be _very_ interested in what you were doing." said Filch nastily.

The boys' hearts sank. Snape already hated them enough, and now he had the perfect excuse to dish out an absurd punishment... only this time the punishment wouldn't really be absurd. They really were in that much trouble.

Filch led the boys to Snape's office, almost skipping as he went. Snape, to no-one's surprise was furious.

"You were seen! By no less than _seven_ muggles! Do you have any idea how serious this is?" Snape asked, seething as he did so.

Ron, Harry and John looked at each other. The Statue of Secrecy...

"You have broken the Statue of Secrecy! Risked the exposure of entire world! Had you been in my house, the both of you would be on the train home at this very moment!" Snape yelled.

Harry gulped.

"As it is-" Snape began, before the boys heard two sets of footsteps enter the room. Looking around, they saw Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore. Normally, this would have been a good thing, but now, having to explain themselves to two people they admired made them feel worse still.

"They are not in your house Severus, but I largely agree with your assessment." said McGonagall, not hiding the disappointment in her voice.

"Please tell us why you did this." said Dumbledore. The disappointment in his voice hurt even more than McGonagalls's.

"Well we missed the train, the barrier had shut, so..." John uncharacteristically stuttered.

"And what made it so difficult to send an owl? As I understand, both of you have owls." said McGonagall, referring to John and Harry.

Harry had no idea why he didn't think of that himself. It was so simple! Why did they have to go and pull a stunt like that?

"We didn't think-" Ron started.

"No Weasley, you clearly didn't. Headmaster, Minverva, what are your decisions?" Snape asked.

"I must refer to Minverva here Severus. The boys are in Gryffindor and so their punishment shall be up to her." said Dumbledore, looking to McGonagall.

"We'll go and get our stuff then." said Ron.

"What are you talking about Mr. Weasley?" McGonagall asked.

"Well... you're expelling us aren't you?" John asked glumly.

"Not today." said McGonagall. Snape looked furious.

"They broke the Statue of Secrecy! They-" Snape started.

"I am well aware of our laws Severus, having written quite a few of those laws myself. This is Minverva's decision. Quite frankly, this is very serious, but they are young, and liable to act rashly." said Dumbledore, understandingly.

"Make no mistake however. I must impress upon you the severity of your mistake. You will have detention for two months. You will report to my office each weekday evening at five. Do I make myself clear?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes Professor!" said John, smiling.

"Now, off to the common room, all three of you." she replied.

Harry, Ron and John did so, almost skipping. How they escaped expulsion was beyond them. Ron's hunch was that they saved the stone last year, so McGonagall and Dumbledore still felt as if they owed them something.

"Well, all we have to do is pretend to listen to Hermione and Delilah's lectures and we're done!" said John, happily.

"Until mum finds out." said Ron, uncomfortably.

"Don't worry, she's not going to pull you out of school or anything." said Harry.

"Yeah, but she'll find a way to embarrass me or something." said Ron.

"Doesn't matter, let's just go to bed." said John.

They entered the common room the find it erupting in cheers. They got greetings and congratulations from students they'd never even met before.

"That was brilliant you three!"

"Did anything almost go wrong?"

"Did you run into muggle helicopters and planes?"

"Did you fly over the train?"

Such questions and statements were bombarded at them for almost half an hour. Harry spotted Delilah and Hermione towards the back of the crowd, looking at them disapprovingly.

Once the excitement had died down, the two of them walked over to the boys.

"Not now, save the lecture. We're enjoying ourselves, and McGonagall's already punished us. Plus, mum'll have a thing or two to say." said Ron, before they were met with some lecture about recklessness and responsibility.

Eventually, the common room began to empty as students headed off to bed. When John, Ron and Harry did so, Neville, Seamus and Dean were there waiting for them with some final congratulations.

"Brilliant!" said Neville.

"You've got to tell us the story!" said Seamus.

"Don't leave out any details!" said Dean.

John decided to speak up and told the other three an exaggerated and embellished version of what really happened. Though neither Ron nor Harry complained. All three of them thoroughly enjoyed the attention they had garnered from their peers due to the flying car stunt they pulled.


	4. Lockhart's strike one

Harry, Ron and John went to bed grinning like idiots, but the next morning they were far less content. The way Hermione and Delilah wished them good morning told them that they still strongly disapproved of the manner in which they had arrived at Hogwarts, but Neville greeted them very cheerfully, as did Seamus and Dean, who were still in awe of their antics the previous evening.

As the students began to eat their breakfasts, the owls, as expected arrived with the mail. Harry spotted Errol, who performed an owl's equivalent of a crash landing straight onto the table.

"Oh no!" said Ron.

"It's alright, he's alive, see?" said Hermione, pointing at Errol, who was still clearly breathing.

"It's not Errol. It's... _that._ " said Ron, pointing at the red envelope in Errol's mouth.

"What's so frightening about that letter?" Delilah asked, looking at Ron and Neville, both of whom were looking at the envelope as if it were a bomb.

"That's... that's a howler. Ron, my Gran once sent one to me, you'd better open it. I ignored the one from my Gran one, and it was even worse. Just get it over with." Neville advised.

"What's a howler?" John asked. His question was soon answered when Ron opened the dreaded envelope.

Mrs. Weasley's voice filled the great hall, a hundred times louder than it usually was.

 _RONALD WEASLEY!_

 _I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! STEALING THAT CAR, I'M SURPRISED YOU'RE NOT EXPELLED RIGHT NOW! I THOUGHT THE LETTER FROM PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE WOULD MAKE YOUR FATHER DIE OF SHAME! HE'S FACING AN ENQUIRY AT WORK AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT!_

Harry and John both felt awful. Mr. Weasley was facing an enquiry at work, after the Weasleys had shown them such wonderful hospitality...

 _IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME! WE BROUGHT YOU UP TO BE BETTER THAN THIS!_

John looked around to the Slytherin table, and sure enough, Malfoy was enjoying himself very much. He was going to have a field day with this the next time he and Ron saw each other. But of course, Harry told him what he saw when he and his father visited Borgin and Burke's in Knockturn Alley. He knew how ashamed of him his father was with Delilah and Hermione beating him in every test.

Eventually, the yelling stopped and the howler ripped itself into pieces.

"Well then..." said John.

"I don't know what you expected you three, but-" Hermione started.

"Don't say he deserved it. Yeah, we may have acted like a bunch of idiots, but that was bloody humiliating." John snapped.

Hermione decided to stay silent.

None of them had much time to dwell though, for McGonagall started handing out timetables at the Gryffindor table. Herbology with the Hufflepuffs was up first.

"Good, at least we don't have to deal with Malfoy yet." said Delilah, who was well aware of how he'd be dealing with the howler situation.

"Shall we head down now?" Harry asked.

Suddenly, the voice of Gilderoy Lockhart interrupted them.

"Go on, but Harry, stay behind for a moment, I'd like a word." he said.

Ron, John, Delilah and Hermione awkwardly headed off to Herbology, leaving Harry to deal with Lockhart.

"Harry, Harry, Harry. I should have known you'd do something like this." he said.

"Sir?" Harry asked.

"I gave you a taste of publicity Harry! That day in Flourish and Blotts! I should have known you'd do something that'd make you stand out, but the flying car? I must admire your bravado, but you need to step back, be patient!" said Lockhart.

Harry gaped at Lockhart. Was this idiot being serious? This guy was going to teach him Defence against the Dark arts? Lockhart clearly didn't notice Harry's reaction.

"You see when I was your age, I was just as much of a nobody as you were, in fact, I daresay even more so, considering you had that business with He who must not be named! It's not as great as winning Witch Weekly's most charming smile award five times running of course but it's a start Harry, it's a start. Being taught by me might just lead you on the path to fame anyway! Good luck in Herbology!" said Lockhart.

Harry was beginning to wish Ron and John were there when Lockhart was bombarding him with all that nonsense. They'd have certainly made it less awkward, but was glad Hermione and Delilah weren't there, Hermione especially - she'd already shown that she was absolutely fawning over him.

As he walked towards the Herbology greenhouses, he grinned to himself, thinking how easy it would be to tease Hermione about this when they got older. So far that was the only good thing coming out of Lockhart's appointment as defence against the dark arts professor.

Harry eventually reached the Greenhouse and took a spot between John and Delilah. They were all stood next to pairs of earmuffs, and the greenhosue was filled with deep trays with tufty leaved plants. Before Harry could ask what that was all about, Professor Sprout cleared her throat from the centre of the Greenhouse.

"Today we'll be learning about re-potting Mandrakes. Who here can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" she asked.

It didn't take long for Hermione to raise her hand, to no-one's surprise. Hermione explained that Mandrakes are used to make restoratives, used to return cursed or transfigured people to their original state, earning her ten points for Gryffindor.

"Excellent Miss Granger, take ten points for Gryffindor. Mandrakes are also quite dangerous. Can anyone tell me why?" Sprout asked.

Surprisingly, Neville was the next to raise his hand. It wasn't as if it was surprising that Neville knew the answer - he was even better at Herbology than Hermione, but the surprise came from him speaking in front of the class. He was normally a lot more timid.

"They always cry when removed from the soil, and their cries can kill you." Neville explained.

"Well done Mr. Longbottom, another ten points to Gryffindor. The mandrakes here are young, so their cries won't kill you, but they will be able to knock you out, hence the earmuffs. Everyone put them on and make sure every part of your ears are covered. When it's safe to take them off, I'll give you all a thumbs up." said the professor

The students all did so, and they were surprised about just how effective the earmuffs were. They shut out all sound completely. Delilah wondered whether they were enchanted.

They all turned back to Professor Sprout, who grasped one of the tufty plants and pulled it straight out of the tray. Harry did a double take when he saw the plant. It certainly looked like no other plant he'd ever seen before.

It looked like an extremely ugly baby made of mud. Its mouth was open and it was obviously screaming, and judging by what Neville said, it would have been an extremely effective defence mechanism - the entire room would have been unconscious were it not for the earmuffs.

They watched on as their professor re-potted the mandrake into a larger tray and buried it with more soil, before giving the class a thumbs up.

"That's what you'll all be doing today, Four to a table, and take notes!" said Professor Sprout. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Delilah headed towards a table, before looking awkwardly at John.

"It's OK, I'll head over there." said John, pointing towards a table with Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones and another Hufflepuff girl that Harry couldn't remember the name of. John's grin was rather obvious.

"Why am I not surprised?" Harry asked, though he was smirking.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Over the summer, John discovered girls. It's got quite annoying actually." said Delilah.

"Well I wouldn't say I've discovered girls so much as _them_ discovering _me_." said John, causing Ron and Harry to laugh, whilst Hermione and Delilah looked on at the boys disapprovingly as John walked away.

"Hey girls, mind if I join?" John asked.

"Oh! Err... Hi John! Sure!" said Hannah.

"So I know you Hannah and you Susan, but what's your name?" John asked the other girl at the table.

"Rachel Meadowes. Did you and your brother really confront You-Know who again last year? And Ron Weasley with that life-sized chess game?" she asked, her eyes wide in curiosity.

"Yeah we did." said John, the smile wiped off his face remembering what it was like to face even a weakened, parasitic Voldemort.

"Sorry, I didn't want to-" she started.

"Nah, don't worry. It was scary but I don't have PTSD or anything" said John.

"PTSD?" asked Rachel.

"Muggles identified it. It's when you go through something traumatic and it gives you mental issues." said Hannah.

"Oh."

John would have preferred it to be otherwise, but after that they didn't have much of a chance to talk. The earmuffs were back on and they got to work on re-potting the mandrakes.

After the class, the students were all tired and covered in Earth. However, on their way back to the tower, John noticed something very shocking. Outside the courtyard leading to the great hall, there were two trolls, even bigger than the one they knocked out last year guarding the door, and yet they weren't attacking every student in sight. Ron and Harry also noticed, but for some reason, Delilah and Hermione seemed unfazed.

"Guys? What the hell is this?" John asked.

"Security trolls. At the start of year assembly, Dumbledore said they're here in case Sirius Black comes here." said Hermione.

"Don't worry, they're not like the one that attacked me last year. These ones are trained." Hermione explained.

"Yeah, I'd rather not have to handle another one of those damn things again." said John.

They continued their day which included Ron finding out that his wand was essentially unworkable during a transfiguration lesson of all times. McGonagall was not impressed.

"Ron, that's just not worth it, write home for another one." said Harry.

"Yeah, and get another howler back? _It's your own fault the wand was snapped in the first place!_ " Ron said.

"If you're worried about another howler, I'll just buy one for you." said John.

"No way, I can't let you do that!" said Ron firmly.

"Why not? We were in that car together, and it's as much my fault as yours." said John.

"Yeah and besides, it's really no trouble. We have enough money for us not to even know what to do with it all." said Harry brightly.

"I'd have to pay you back." said Ron, uncomfortably.

"No you don't. I'll just not buy anything for you at Christmas if it bothers you that much." said John.

"Well... alright." said Ron, who still wasn't entirely alright with it.

"What's the next lesson and when is it?" John asked.

"Defence against the Dark arts in half an hour." said Hermione immediately.

"Why." Ron demanded, grabbing Hermione's timetable.

"Have you outline all of Lockheart's lessons in little hearts?" Ron asked.

Hermione blushed furiously and retrieved her timetable.

"Well... Hermione's obvious crush aside, we've got half an hour. Let's go to McGonagall and ask her if we can go out and get a wand for you." said John.

"Yeah, sure. John are you coming? McGonagall likes you. For whatever reason." Ron teased.

"Yeah I will. And she likes me because I have a brain." John shot back, smirking.

"What's the use of having a brain if you think with the contents of your pants?" Ron retorted. The pair of them continued their back and forth all the way to McGonagall's office, while Harry, Hermione and Delilah waited near the Defence against the dark arts classroom.

"Enter." said McGonagall as Ron knocked on the door.

"Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?" McGonagall asked.

"Hi Professor. You probably noticed that Ron's wand is... well... I'll say less than functional. Can we leave the school on Saturday and get Ron a new wand?" John asked.

"Well as you are aware, with the escape of Sirius Black, things aren't as safe as they normally would be. You would of course have to be accompanied. Also, why would you have to go with Mr. Weasley Potter?" McGonagall asked.

Ron looked between McGonagall and John awkwardly.

"Err... I don't have any money and John offered to buy it for me." he said, mortified.

McGonagall could tell that the subject of money deeply bothered Ron, so she didn't press the issue.

"Alright, I will permit it, but you'll have to get a staff member to accompany you. I myself am busy over the weekend." said McGonagall.

"Is Hagrid busy?" Ron asked.

"I believe he has some time free. You'd be better off asking Hagrid yourself. I will write some written permission for you to leave. Make sure that you do not leave Hagrid's sight, and absolutely _no_ mischief. Now is not the time." said McGonagall, looking at John particularly.

"No problem Professor. Thanks!" said John brightly, and with that, he and Ron left McGonagall's office and met up with Hermione, Harry and Delilah at the defence against the dark arts classroom.

"McGonagall's letting us head out on Saturday, as long as we can get Hagrid accompanying us." said Ron.

"That's good, you honestly can't work with that wand all year." said Delilah.

"Yeah, you're telling me..." said Ron, pulling out his wand, which was letting out random sparks at odd times.

Eventually, Lockhart arrived at the classroom, looking as smug as ever, and when the class' attention was completely on him, he began his introduction.

"Let me introduce you to your new Defence against the Dark arts teacher... _me._ Gilderoy Lockhart! Order of Merlin, third class. Honorary member of the Dark Forces Defence league... and Five times winner of Witch Weekly's most charming smile award. But more of that later. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" said Lockhart, before laughing at his own feeble attempt at a joke. A few of the class (all of them girls) gave weak smiles in response.

"Now, for the first half an hour, I'll just be giving you a bit of a quiz, but nothing to worry about, you're not being graded, I'm only seeing how well you've taken in what you've read, as I see you all have my books!" said Lockheart.

Lockheart handed out the quizzes, and when Harry and John looked down at their papers, their jaws dropped.

 _1\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?_

 _2\. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

 _3\. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

It continued in a similar manner for almost a full page, all the way to question fifty four, which read:

 _54\. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday and what would his ideal gift be?_

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw an evil grin on John's face. He knew exactly what John was thinking. Looking over at John's answers, he wasn't disappointed. According to John, Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition was to one day, own a fully functioning brain, and his greatest achievement thus far was managing not to burst out laughing every time he looks into a mirror.

When Lockhart collected the answers, Harry was surprised not to see Lockhart fuming with anger when he saw John's answers. In fact, he seemed to just ignore them. Instead he expressed disappointment in the class not remembering his favourite colour and continually recited the specific titles of his books. Something told Harry that Lockhart only took up the position of Defence teacher for the sake of selling more books and extra publicity. By 'something', he meant common sense.

However, nothing could have prepared them for the insane stunt Lockhart decided to pull next. He began it with a speech which actually got John excited.

"Now, be warned. It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind. Know only that no harm shall come to you with me in the room. I must ask you not to scream. It might... provoke them." he said.

 _Finally._ Thought John. _Something real._

John was arguably the most disappointed student in the room when Lockhart removed a blanket from a cage to reveal a large group of pixies.

Seamus couldn't contain his laughter.

"Yes?" Lockhart asked, smiling.

"Cornish pixies aren't too dangerous, are they?" Seamus asked.

"Laugh all you want Mr. Finnigan, but pixies can be devilishly tricky little blighters. Let's see what you make of them!" he said. And like one of the most monumental idiots in Britain, he released the pixies, and caused absolute chaos. The pixies flew around everywhere, throwing books, biting people and even lifting Neville into the air and hanging him off the lights on the ceiling.

Lockhart pulled out his wand and attempted to save face and deal with the pixies himself.

 _"Peskipixie pesternomi!"_ he tried, but nothing happened. In fact, a pixie flew by and just stole his wand.

"I'll just ask you five to just pop them back into their cage." said Lockhart, looking at Harry, Delilah, John, Hermione and Ron.

"Great. What a monumental dipshit!" said John angrily, as he roughly yanked three pixies out of the air.

"He's just trying to give us practical experience!" Hermione tried.

"Hermione, look at the classroom." said an unimpressed Ron.

Indeed, the classroom was in disarray, broken glass, books strewn about, Neville stuck to the ceiling... It couldn't be argued that releasing pixies into a classroom was a good idea.

Once they had put the pixies back into their cage, Ron was the first to speak.

"It's obvious. He doesn't have a clue what he's doing." he said, very annoyed.

"Rubbish! You've read those books, look at all the amazing things he's done!" said Hermione.

"Yeah, the things he _says_ he's done..." Ron replied.


	5. Much ado about Mudbloods

As soon as the lesson was officially over, Harry remembered something with a start.

"John! Quidditch starts tomorrow!" he said.

"Oh right! Awesome, so am I good to try out?" John asked.

"Yeah, but just so you know, he'll be a bit reluctant to swap out any of the girls as chaser." said Harry.

"No problem. They are all pretty damn good but I reckon I'm in with a shot." said John.

"You know John, you'd almost definitely be the best chaser on the team if last year's flying lessons were anything to go by." said Delilah.

"Oh I know." said John, smugly.

"You'd be even better without that gargantuan ego dragging you down." said Hermione.

"Yeah, it's a wonder the brooms can even carry something that size." said Ron, smirking.

"Hey, it's not unfounded." said John, simply.

* * *

The morning's Quidditch started much earlier than Harry would have liked. He was woken up at six in the morning.

"Oliver... what time is it?" Harry grumbled.

"Six! Time for practice! Get your brother if he's still up for trying out!" said Wood, before hurrying down the stairs, heading towards the Quidditch pitch.

Harry rolled out of bed and shook John awake.

"Uh? Whasgoinon?" John mumbled.

"Wood's lost his mind and we're starting practice now. Yes I know it's six in the morning, but he's the captain." said Harry grumpily.

John and Harry headed down to the Quidditch pitches, after telling Ron that John's tryout was then and there. They then got changed and met the rest of the Gryffindor team out on the fields. Everyone else looked as tired as they did.

"Right everyone, Harry's brother John is interested in trying out, so we'll get that out of the way first. Four chasers here, split up, Katie, John, you're up against Angelina and Alicia. Fred, you're on John's side, George you're on Angelina's. You're all trying to score against me, and the team to score the most in... let's say twenty minutes will win. If John is good enough, I'll have to make the call on who's getting dropped. Harry, you warm up by doing some laps. Go!" said Wood.

Harry could see Ron, Hermione and Delilah arrive. Ron had obviously gone to fetch the girls after they'd left for the pitches.

Harry then turned to see John play, and he didn't disappoint. In short, John was magnificent. He and Hermione had told him about a trophy their father once won in the position of chaser, and seeing John figuratively tear up the Quidditch pitch would certainly bring back some nostalgic feelings for Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore.

Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson were by no means a weak pair of chasers. They were some of the best in the school, but John single-handedly outclassed both of them, and combined with Katie Bell, who was no slouch herself, the score didn't even come close to resembling a close contest. Wood had no choice but to let John on the team.

"John! That was spectacular! But now for the hard part." said Oliver, who mumbled to himself for a few minutes, before being forced to replace Alicia with John.

Angelina and Katie exchanged sad looks with Alicia, but decided that it was for the good of the team in the long run, before the new Gryffindor team began their training.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Delilah were deep in conversation with Ron.

"John really does know what he's doing, doesn't he?" Hermione commented.

"You got that right, that was unbelievable!" said Ron.

"There's no way we're not winning the Quidditch this year!" said Delilah.

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you, apparently we're doing some muggle sports this year. When do they start? I wasn't at the first assembly obviously, and I'll tell Harry and John." said Ron.

"Tomorrow actually. We're all getting crash courses in those sports and then we'll split into first and second years, third and fourth years, and fifth to seventh year teams. We're supposed to be playing a bunch of muggle schools." said Hermione.

"Cool, I can't wait. Dean's excited, he loves football." said Ron.

"I am too, to an extent. Though I must say, rugby doesn't seem to be my cup of tea." said Hermione, wrinkling her nose.

"Why's that?" Ron asked.

"Rugby's one of the roughest and most dangerous muggle sports of the lot. There's a lot of collisions and strength involved." said Delilah.

"Sounds like John's game." said Ron.

"Definitely, I wouldn't be surprised if John captained the first and second year team." said Delilah.

The Quidditch practice went on, with Oliver feeling more and more giddy with John's raw talent. With him and Harry both on the team, he didn't see how Gryffindor could drop a single game. John would aggressively dominate the Quaffle, keeping the scoreboard ticking for Gryffindor and Harry simply didn't miss the snitch.

However, before Oliver could begin the final phase of the day's practice, Ron yelled and pointed at the bottom of the pitch. There, on the grass, were seven more Quidditch players, dressed in green, smirking up at the Gryffindor team.

Everyone present converged to the scene, Ron, Hermione and Delilah included.

"Clear off you lot, I booked the pitch for Gryffindor today." said Oliver.

"Easy Wood. I've got a note from Professor Snape." said Marcus Flint, Slytherin's captain, before handing Wood said note.

Wood read it aloud.

"I, Professor Snape, give the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to practice on the morning of Saturday the 5th of September, owing to the need to train their new seeker. So who's the new seeker?" Wood asked.

The six large players all stepped aside, to reveal none other than:

"Malfoy?"

"That's right Potter. What's wrong? Afraid of a bit of competition?" he asked.

"You wish. But we've got John now, he's a new chaser." said Harry.

"Yeah, but you don't have a staff member's written permission Wood. We're taking the pitch." said Flint.

Wood couldn't argue with that, as much as he hated to admit it.

"Oh, and before you lot go, I'm not the only addition to the Slytherin team this year." said Malfoy, brandishing his broom proudly.

Ron was the first to notice.

"Nimbus 2001s? Where did you get those?" he asked, shocked.

"Gift. Draco's father gave them to us." Flint said, smugly.

"You see Weasley, unlike some, my father can afford the _best_." said Malfoy.

"At least the Gryffindor players didn't have to _buy_ their way in. They got in based on skill." said Hermione, loftily.

Malfoy turned to face Hermione, and walked right up to her, facing her as if he was ready to hit her. John put his broom down, ready to pounce, and Ron was about to draw his wand.

"No one asked for _your_ opinion. Filthy little _mudblood_." he said.

Harry and John had no idea what that meant, but they could tell it was extremely offensive.

Before anyone could react though, John grabbed Malfoy by the collar and slammed him into some nearby wooden scaffolding which held up the stands for the spectators.

"Say that again you little fuck. I dare you." He snarled.

Malfoy, nomally a very smug looking boy looked absolutely terrified, and with good reason. John had lifted him clean off the floor, and was holding him up by his Quidditch robes.

Before John did something to get himself into too much trouble, Fred and George pulled him off.

However, the Gryffindors still looked positively furious with Malfoy.

"John, we've got to go now anyway, remember? Diagon Alley?" Ron pointed out. Hopefully that would take their minds off what Malfoy just said.

"Yeah." John mumbled.

Harry, Delilah and Hermione accompanied Ron and John to Hagrid's before they left. They told Hagrid what Malfoy said.

"He did not!" Hagrid replied, aghast.

"What does it mean though? I get that it's bad but I don't know why." said Harry.

"It means dirty blood. It's a foul way of describing someone like me." said Hermione.

"What, clever people?" John joked.

Hermione smiled weakly for a moment.

"No. Someone with non magical parents, who still has magical powers." she said.

"You see Harry, John, wizards like the Malfoys think they're better than everyone else because they're what people call 'pure blooded'. No muggles in their family." said Hagrid.

"That's fucking insane!" John said, indignantly.

"Yeah! People should be judged by the quality of their ideas and their character! Not who they do or don't have in their family! And muggles aren't even inferior people to wizards in the first place!" Delilah added.

"Exactly. Besides, no one's thought of a spell that our Hermione can't do. Don' yeh think on it Hermione. Don' yeh think on it for one moment, eh?" Hagrid said encouragingly.

Hermione began to feel better, as did Delilah, who, despite not being insulted personally, was indirectly insulted by the label that Malfoy threw at Hermione.

"Anyway, I'll be takin' Ron and John ter Diagon Alley. You three head back teh the castle, alrigh'?" said Hagrid, as they all nodded.

* * *

That evening, Ron and John returned, with a fourteen inch willow wand with a unicorn's tail hair, and unsurprisingly, a large bag of food which they'd no doubt be hiding in their dorm.

Before Harry could ask about how the trip was with all the security around, looking for Sirius black, McGonagall came to find them, presumably for their detention.

"Mr. Weasley, you will be polishing the silver in the trophy room tonight with Mr. Filch at eight. No magic, elbow grease only." said McGonagall.

"Mr. Potter, you will be sweeping the floors of the herbology greenhouses at eight. The same instructions to you, no magic allowed. Professor Sprout will know. And you Mr. Potter will be helping Professor Lockhart answer his fan mail. He asked for you specifically." said McGonagall.

"Wait, can't I help Ron or John?" asked Harry.

"Certainly not. As I said, Professor Lockhart asked for you by name, so he will be supervising your detention, no questions asked." said McGonagall firmly.

"Great. More time spent with that idiot." said Harry once McGonagall was out of earshot.

"Well sweeping the herbology greenhouses isn't exactly easy. There's going to be mud and leaves everywhere!" said John.

"And I've got Filch." said Ron, simply.

"Yeah, but I'd swap any day. Lockhart's a nightmare and he doesn't even know it..." said Harry.

Hermione and Delilah exchanged looks.

"Just tell them." said Delilah.

"Alright. You three, you should know that you're being punished for a reason." said Hermione.

"Yeah yeah, we get it, you-" John started.

"No you don't. There's a reason people say think before you act, and you three idiots decided to steal that car and fly it to school! There's a murderer on the loose and no one knew where you were!" said Hermione.

Harry, Ron and John exchanged uncomfortable looks.

"You don't have any idea how worried we were, do you? Until we saw the daily prophet, we didn't know where you were or what you were doing! You can't worry everyone like that with Sirius Black running around God knows where! Stop complaining about detention, if I were you, I'd be celebrating that I managed to get away with only two months' detention!" said Delilah.

"Sorry." mumbled John, feeling quite ashamed of himself.

"Yeah, we promise we'll think things through. Properly." said Ron.

"It's alright." said Hermione, her face softening.

The five of them talked for a further hour, before finally, it was time for the boys to head off to detention.

Harry could hardly bear to look Lockhart in the face when he arrived.

* * *

"Harry, Harry, Harry. Could you possibly imagine a better way to spend your detention than to help me answer my fan mail?" asked Lockhart, a couple of hours into the detention.

"Not really." said Harry, dully.

"I'm sure you remember the reason why you're here, but I want to take this opportunity to tell you that fame is a fickle friend. Celebrity is as a celebrity does. Remember that Harry." said Lockhart, flashing his gleaming white teeth again.

"Yeah. Thanks." said Harry, unsure of how to react to Lockhart's bizarre advice.

Before Harry could ask what time it was, he began to hear something. Some sort of raspy, whispering voice.

 _I smell blood._

"What?" Harry asked.

"What?" Lockhart repeated.

"Did you hear that? The voice?" Harry asked.

"Voice? Harry I think you're getting a little... drowsy. And great scott no wonder, look at the time! Spooky how time flies when one's having fun, isn't it?" Lockhart asked.

"Yeah. Spooky." said Harry, thinking of the voice.

"Well I suppose I'd better not keep you any longer then. Off you go!" said Lockhart, cheerily.

Harry mumbled a quick goodnight to his professor, before walking back towards the Gryffindor common room warily, the voice still on his mind. He felt distinctively unsafe, and his uneasiness was made worse by the voice's reappearance.

 _Come to me. I see you. Time to kill...kill...kill!_

Harry felt his footsteps quickening. He rounded a corner and bumped into someone, which made him jump.

"Shit! Harry, oh my God, did you hear that voice?" It was John. Harry felt a little more at ease, but John was hearing the voice too...

"Yeah, what's going on?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, but it said something about blood, and killing!" John replied anxiously.

"We've got to find it, before it makes good on that." said Harry, and the two of them set off towards the direction they thought they heard the voice coming from.

They both still felt uneasy, something which was still occurring when they ran into Hermione, Delilah and Ron.

"Guys, did you hear it?" John asked.

"Hear what?" Ron asked.

"The voice!" Harry said, as if it were obvious to them.

"What voice?" Delilah asked, looking at Harry and John with concern.

 _Kill! Kill! Kill!_

"There it is again! It's going to kill someone!" said John, before he and Harry ran off towards the direction from where it came.

Ron, Delilah and Hermione looked at each other worriedly, before following. They found Harry and John staring at the floor of another corridor. It was covered in a lot of water, but they then realized that they were looking at a reflection on the floor.

They then looked up at the real life thing casting the reflection. Writing on the wall.

 _ **The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.**_

"Is that... blood?" Delilah asked, looking horrified.

"I... I think so." said Hermione, before gulping.

"Guys?" Ron said.

The others turned to look at Ron, who was in turn looking at a very unsettling image. Filch's cat was hanging off an unlit torch by her tail. Was the writing written in her blood?

"We'd better get out of here. Tell Professor Dumbledore." said Delilah.

As soon as she said this, John thought to himself 'speak of the devil', for Professor Dumbledore himself had arrived, walking with Professors McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Madame Pomfrey.

"Professor! Look! What's going on?" Ron asked.

Dumbledore took one look at the situation, before a concerned look appeared on his face.

"Children, you will proceed to your dormitories immediately." he said without hesitation.

"One moment, headmaster." said Snape, looking at Harry and John with a sharp eye.

"Don't you find it... peculiar, how Weasley and the Potters weren't at dinner, and we just _happen_ to find them at such a scene?" he asked.

Harry gulped. It did look somewhat incriminating.

John looked back at Snape defiantly.

"We had detention. Ask Lockhart, Filch and Professor Sprout here." he said.

Professor Sprout stepped forward.

"I can certainly vouch for John here. Also, given how they all have detention for the same thing, it's reasonable to assume that they were all in detention. It seems to me that they stumbled across this scene. Besides, they're too young to be able to petrify Mrs. Norris." said Professor Sprout reasonably.

"Very well. Off you go then." said Snape, though he still did watch them like a hawk.

* * *

Needless to say, as soon as they arrived at the Gryffindor common room, they found an empty corner of it to discreetly discuss what they just saw.

"So the first, most obvious question is what the Chamber of Secrets actually is, and who 'the heir' is." said John.

"Nothing about it was mentioned in Hogwarts: A History." said Hermione.

"So what? It's some myth that the academics didn't consider worth mentioning?" Delilah asked.

"It seems that way. But unless this is some sort of joke, and I doubt it is, because I've never heard anyone talking about it, this one turned out to be true. Did you see how worried the teachers were when they saw that message?" Hermione pointed out.

"You know, since the teachers know that we know about it, we could easily just ask them." said Ron.

"Yeah, but not Snape." said Harry.

"Agreed. I think we can ask McGonagall though." said John.

"Yes, I think that would be our best option. We have transfiguration tomorrow morning, don't we?" said Delilah.

"Yes. Whatever it is, it sounds like something we all should know about and we all should be concerned about." said Hermione.

"And what about the heir?" John asked.

"I don't know. And I don't know who his or her enemies would be either." said Hermione.

"As long as the enemies are just cats that piss us off then I'm OK. The blood on the wall was a bit excessive though." said John, causing Harry and Ron to laugh.

"This doesn't look like something to joke about." said Delilah, unimpressed.

"I don't think anything should be immune to humour. As they said in Monty Python, always look on the bright side of life!" said John.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I don't know how you were even allowed to watch that film, but that's not the point. Do people joke about the Holocaust? The Inquisition?" Hermione asked.

"Alright, alright... Wow, you don't have to suck the joy out of everything." John grumbled.

"I don't think there's any joy to be had about this based off the teachers' reactions." Hermione shot back.

"Whatever the case, let's just... try not to involve ourselves this time. Last year we all almost got killed." said Delilah.


	6. The legend of the Chamber

**I was thinking about how large rugby teams are (15 men for those who don't know, with reserves as well, 7 reserves according to the IRB back in 1992-3, which is when Chamber of Secrets is set) and realized that Based on the size of the years as described in the books, there wouldn't really be enough players per team, especially with splits between genders (there's no way girls can compete in rugby with boys of the same age) and splits between year groups (imagine a seventeen year old running into a twelve year old...).**

 **But then I remembered that Hogwarts is the only UK school for wizards and witches. Therefore I'd imagine that the student population would realistically be larger than it was in the books. After all, young wizards and witches don't have anywhere else to learn in the UK. So for the purpose of this series, the school's student populations will be significantly larger, and I'll be using a lot of minor characters for sports teams, Dumbledore's army, day-to-day lessons, etc. It'll be enough for 15 players for each gender for each age group team for each house at least (years 1 and 2, years 3 and 4, and years 5-7, boys and girls, one for each house and one from each year group from all houses).**

 **I'll point out what house/year they'll be in, so don't worry about being confused about people you haven't heard of. As for why they aren't all in the same dorm, there'll just be more than one dorm room per year group per gender per house. Anyway, as they say, the show goes on!**

* * *

The next morning's transfiguration lesson was filled with a lot more tension than usual - the news about the message on the wall had spread very, very quickly. Students were frightened and the teachers had no idea what to do. However, McGonagall was trying to keep things as close to business as usual. She was teaching the students how to turn animals into goblets.

John had unsurprisingly made a successful transformation without any real effort, and he was the first person to address the elephant in the room.

"Professor? I was wondering if you could tell us about the Chamber of secrets." he asked, once his owl Achilles was temporarily a magnificent glass goblet.

McGonagall remained silent for a moment, as did the class, who stopped their incantations and discussions about the task at hand. McGonagall then spoke.

"Very well. As you may know, Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by the four most powerful and talented wizards and witches of the time, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazaar Slytherin, Rowena Ravelclaw and Godric Gryffindor. Three of the founders co-existed harmoniously whilst another was... more disagreeable to say the least." said McGonagall.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it was Salazaar Slytherin." said John dryly.

"Yes. He wanted to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. Purebloods as we know them today. The others did not agree, and he left the school. However, the legend of the Chamber goes that Slytherin built a secret Chamber somewhere in the school, the Chamber of secrets. The story goes that within the chamber lies a monster which only the heir of Slytherin can control, and that said monster can be used to purge the school of those who in Slytherin's view, were unworthy to study magic." said McGonagall.

"Muggleborns." Hermione said in a small voice.

McGonagall nodded and looked at Hermione and the other muggleborn students present with pity. They were so young... they shouldn't have to be so afraid of something which could be in their very own school, their home no less.

The lesson continued as it would have done without McGonagall's chilling tale of Slytherin's mission, although with much less chatter among the students.

"Do you think the Chamber's real?" John asked Hermione once the lesson was over.

"Yes. Look how worried McGonagall was. And Dumbledore when he found us near that message on the wall." she replied.

"So if it's been opened, then who at this school could be the heir of Slytherin?" Delilah asked.

"I wonder who. I mean, I can't think of anyone here who thinks all Muggleborns are scum." Ron said sarcastically.

"If you're talking about Malfoy-" Hermione started, her voice dripping with skepticism.

"Ron could be on to something though Hermione. Malfoy's family have been in Slytherin for centuries, there's got to be something behind that." said Harry.

"Crabbe and Goyle probably know. We could probably trick them into telling us." said Ron.

"I know they're thick, but even _they_ aren't _that_ thick. There would be a way to find out, but it'd be difficult. Not to mention we'd be breaking about fifty school rules..." said Hermione.

"It's worth it if all of the muggleborns at the school are in danger." said Delilah, flatly.

"Alright. We'll meet up in the library tomorrow afternoon, after lunch." said Hermione.

"Why there?" John moaned.

"Because the library has more information than any of us, perhaps?" Hermione answered dryly.

"I guess." John grumbled.

"Salazaar Slytherin wasn't wrong. These mudbloods shouldn't be here, it's an outrage that we even have to be around them." Malfoy could be heard saying to Crabbe and Goyle nearby.

"Hermione, Delilah, can we please just hit him?" Ron asked furiously.

"No Ron, you aren't going to get in trouble over someone as worthless as him." said Delilah with finality.

"Actually Ron, we're doing rugby today. Maybe we _can_ hit him." said John, a smirk creeping over his face.

"Hermione was saying rugby's rough, but how exactly do we hit him?" Ron asked.

"In rugby, you tackle people. You run at them, ram your shoulder into their gut and wrap your arms around their legs. But you can only do that if they have the ball." said Harry.

"Also, if you're carrying the ball, you can run the tacklers over if you're strong enough." said John.

An evil looking grin spread over Ron's face. "Let's hope we get to play against him today then." he said.

"Now that I won't stop you from doing." said Delilah, smirking at Ron.

* * *

The rugby was due to start in half an hour, but for whatever reason, John was nowhere to be found. It was very out of character - John loved sports, and he was relishing the possibility of being allowed to hit Malfoy without repercussions.

Ron and Delilah had been looking for him for almost an hour when they finally found him. In a broom cupboard. Passionately snogging Hannah Abbott.

"What the hell?" John asked incredulously. Hannah, meanwhile was mortified.

"What the hell yourself John!" said Delilah.

"Look mate, I'm not against you doing... whatever it is you two were up to, but rugby starts soon." said Ron, calmly before Delilah could lose her temper.

"Speak for yourself! John? A word please?" Delilah asked.

"Fine. Hannah, I'll see you after rugby in the great hall, yeah?" John asked.

"Yes. Of course." Hannah said in a small voice, still embarrassed, before scampering away.

"I hope you're not leading her on or anything." Delilah said, looking at John with her eyes narrowed.

"What are you on about?" John asked, exasperated.

"I know for a fact that you're not after a girlfriend or anything of the sort, you'd better not be using her just for a quick snog!" said Delilah.

"Fucking hell Delilah, what do you think I am? We both just find each other really fit and decided to snog in a broom cupboard, calm down!" said John.

"And you're not manipulating her in any way?" Delilah pressed.

"No Delilah. Seriously, what's gotten into you?" John asked.

"Nothing, I just don't want to see you turn into... a player or something. Someone who just uses and discards girls at his own leisure. It's not right." said Delilah.

"I'm not using anyone. I'm not going to pretend that they're in for anything they won't really get. You know me better than that, right?" John asked, also turning to Ron.

"John's right Delilah, he's not a dick." said Ron bluntly. Delilah's face softened.

"I know. I just don't want to see you turn into one." she said.

"I won't. Now come on, let's go to rugby." said John, after rolling his eyes.

The three of them met up with Harry and Hermione after getting changed at the Quidditch pitches, which, for the purpose of rugby, now had rugby posts and lines drawn on the grass.

"So where was he?" Harry asked.

"You're talking about me like I'm a lost pet dog or something." said John.

"That wouldn't be too far from the truth you know." said Delilah, grinning at John, causing the others to laugh.

"Fair play Delilah." said John.

"We found him snogging Hannah Abbott in a broom cupboard on the second floor." said Ron.

"What? You and Hannah?" Harry asked.

"Not really. We just sort of mutually agreed that we're attractive and decided to act on it. Just some casual fun really. She's a good kisser." said John.

Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"I know what you're going to say. No, I'm not leading her on, no I'm not manipulating her or using her. Hence the word mutually." said John.

"Actually I was going to ask whether that was your first kiss. It would be a bit odd for your first kiss to be a full on snogging session in a broom cupboard." said Hermione.

"Well yeah, it was my first kiss but I don't really care. If I hold my first kiss up on some sort of pedestal and treat it as if it's something precious, then other kisses will mean less by default." said John.

"That's an interesting way of looking at it actually." said Delilah.

Before they could discuss it any further, they were greeted by a massive, very muscular group of wizards who were presumably going to teach them about rugby.

"First and second year boys, come here! First and second year girls over to Jack there, he's wearing the yellow jersey!" came the booming voice of the larger of the two first and second year coaches. He had a strong South African accent, so it was no secret as to where he was from, and John and Harry knew how much the South Africans love their rugby.

"Alright, now I'm very excited to be sharing this experience with you. My name is Schalk Van de Merwe. I am a wizard, yes, but I've been a fan of rugby ever since my muggle friend showed me a game on his television. You have to realize that you're all very lucky. You're the first wizarding school to have this opportunity. I also understand that you'll be playing football, but not until next week. Now then, we need to get you all up to speed on the basics. Tackling, passing, and set pieces." said Van de Merwe.

Harry could hear something about Malfoy scoffing at the idea of them being lucky to do muggle things at school, but chose to ignore him.

Soon enough, the students had a basic idea of how to pass and tackle, and after enough time, they had even learned how to scrummage and get in a lineout should the ball be out of play. It was then time to find their positions. Dean and Ron, being the tallest there, were the obvious choices to play in the second row. John and Alex Burke, a first year Gryffindor were the strongest players there, and so found themselves playing prop. Harry was placed on the wing to to his slight figure and impressive turn of speed.

They played and learned rugby throughout the day (of course taking breaks for lunch and for the sake of recovery) and eventually, for the last hour, Van de Merwe had an announcement.

"Gryffindor, you'll be playing Slytherin. Hufflepuff you'll be playing Ravenclaw." he said.

John, Ron and Harry rubbed their hands together. They would have an excuse to bash Malfoy! And Crabbe and Goyle would be directly facing John and Alex Burke, as props in the scrum. John saw this as his opportunity to stamp down his self-given title of strongest student in their year.

The title may have been self given, but it wasn't unwarranted. John outclassed Crabbe, his opposite number in the scrum, and time after time, the game would see John barging directly through potential tacklers, Malfoy bearing the brunt of his aggressive play.

Ron's height made him a nuisance to deal with on kick offs - he was able to catch the ball before Slytherin players could even reach it. Dean would have done the same, but unfortunately for him, he had trouble catching kick-offs. Harry, meanwhile, was the fastest and arguably the most agile player on the pitch, frequently outpacing Slytherin players left and right, sidestepping tackles and in general, just being very hard to get a hold of. It was just as well, because Harry was the smallest player on the pitch. If Crabbe or Goyle could catch him, the physical size difference would have proven very painful for Harry.

Fortunately though, John was there to put both Crabbe and Goyle in their place, and the game ended twenty-seven to fifteen in favor of Gryffindor.

Van de Merwe had one final series of things to say before the exhausted students headed back to the castle for dinner.

"Since you're all new to rugby, or at least some of you are, you won't be playing muggle schools until next year. For now, your house competitions will be your competitive rugby experience. Also, for this year it will be compulsory, but not next year and onward. We want you to have a good understanding of rugby before you make the decision to play or not. Finally I would like to thank you for being so cooperative and willing to learn. Some of you are already very good. I'll see you here next week." said Van de Merwe, before the students all went back inside.

The boys met up with Delilah and Hermione at the Gryffindor common room and sat down together at a sofa.

"So, what did you all think?" Ron asked.

"I loved it." said Delilah, flatly.

"Really? Wouldn't have thought you to be the type." said John, surprised.

"What can I say? It's always the quiet ones." said Ron, earning him a playful slap on the shoulder.

"I didn't like it but I can appreciate how it's a worthwhile sport. Millicent Bullstrode though... she was quite terrifying on the pitch if I'm honest.

"Who's that?" John asked.

"Some Slytherin girl in our year. She's quite big actually. She's about two inches shorter than you, and almost as bulky. More fat than muscle though." said Delilah to John.

"Wow. She must look like a fucking troll. Good thing I've never seen her." said John, causing the others to laugh.

"I also loved it. Can't wait to play more." said Harry.

"What was the reception like from the girls in general?" Ron asked.

"As you'd expect. Most of them didn't like it, so for us it's just entirely optional if we want to keep playing. I expect there won't be an inter house competition for girls." said Hermione.

"Wow. For us guys it's compulsory for this year. Good thing almost everyone loved it." said John.

"Yeah we did. Actually, I reckon we're naturals at it. Ron's always catching the ball because he's taller than everyone, I can outpace people, and John's... John." said Harry.

"Meaning?" Hermione asked.

"He's the strongest player on the pitch. It was almost unfair, watching him running over the Slytherin players like they were nothing." said Ron.

"It was hilarious watching him smash Malfoy though. Hell he even smashed Crabbe and Goyle." said Harry.

"Well yeah. Hardly surprising though, I mean I'm not going to pretend that those two aren't strong, but..." John said, before flexing his biceps.

Hermione and Delilah rolled their eyes.

However, Hannah Abbott was nearby and chose that opportunity to continue with John from where they left off.

"John? Can we..." She asked, suggestively.

"See you guys at dinner. Don't wait up for me." said John, smirking, before following Hannah to god knows where.

"John's wonderful, but does he have to be so much of a..." Hermione started.

"Meathead?" Delilah offered.

"Yes. That exactly." said Hermione.

"Well yeah, but he's happy being a meathead at least." said Ron.

* * *

By the time dinner rolled around, most of the second year Hufflepuff girls were talking about John and Hannah going off somewhere to snog. John could hear Hannah's friends from the Hufflepuff table saying things like 'What's he like in private?' 'Did you get to see him shirtless?' 'Is he a good kisser?' and of course, his already substantial ego was yet again being fed.

"How shallow can they get?" Delilah asked, slightly exasperated.

"It is me Delilah. I can't blame them." said John, smirking. Delilah of course, rolled her eyes.

"Well I think it's more about how none of them, or at least very few of them have any experience with kissing boys." said Hermione.

"And you do?" Harry asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I never said I did. I was only pointing out how they are interested in an experience that only one of them has had." Hermione explained.

The rest of dinner was spent talking about rugby, though when dinner was over, Ron and Harry said they wanted to talk to John in private, away from everyone else including Delilah and Hermione, though they had gone to bed anyway.

"So, what's up?" John asked.

"Well we were wondering, and by the way we were a bit embarrassed to ask in front of anyone else, and also I'm too embarrassed to ask my dad or brothers, but how do you... talk to girls?" Ron asked.

John looked like Ron and Harry had sprouted extra limbs at random.

"You talk to Hermione and Delilah every day!" he said.

"Yes, but we aren't trying to snog them." said Harry, simply.

"OK, I suppose that's fair. But why are you so embarrassed? Seamus, Dean, Neville, the others in our year they don't know anything about it either. Not really. And also, you could talk to Hermione or Delilah too, since they actually _are_ girls." said John.

"Yeah but they're not like other girls, are they?" Ron pointed out.

"True. OK, I'll bite. What do you want to know?" John asked.

"Same things really. How do you approach a girl you find... that you... you want to snog let's say." Harry asked.

"Depends. Are you trying to go out with her or just have a bit of fun?" John asked.

"Both. Just tell us what to do in either situation." said Harry.

"OK, well if it's a one-time thing or a casual thing I'd say just dive in head first. Admit that you find them attractive. Girls love confident blokes." said John.

"That simple? No games, nothing like that?" Ron asked.

"That simple." said John, smirking.

"Alright, what about a girl you want to take a bit more seriously?" Harry asked.

"Well it's similar, you do need confidence, but you've got to be a bit more subtle. You know, maybe pay attention to her for about a day or two to show her you could be interested in her, stuff like holding the door open for her, saying that she looks good today or whatever, and then when you think you've dropped enough hints, go for the full monty." said John.

"Shag her?!" Ron exclaimed. Harry burst out laughing.

"That's not what I meant by the full monty!" John replied, aghast.

"I was joking mate. I know what you meant." said Ron, laughing.

"Fucking hell Ron, you had me worried." said John. Harry was still laughing at Ron's comment.

"So who've you two got in mind?" John asked.

"No one actually. At least not me. This is just for reference. You Ron?" said Harry, after recovering.

"Nope. It's just that the prettier girls are just a bit harder to talk to, you know?" Ron asked.

"That's just because you think they're more likely to reject you. To be fair, if you think about it, prettier girls will have higher standards, and there's nothing wrong with that really." said John.

"Easy for you to say, Hannah's not exactly the worst looking girl around, is she?" Harry asked.

"Well yeah, but could you blame a good looking girl for preferring good looking blokes? They're out of other guys' leagues, aren't they?" John said.

"True." Ron grumbled.

"Hey, you guys don't have to worry. You're Harry fucking Potter, and you're tall. Girls love tall guys." said John.

"Fair enough I guess, but don't the birds just crawl to you pretty much?" Ron asked.

John smirked.

"I get the idea that they want to, but they expect me as a bloke to make the first move, which is totally fair. On the flipside, I've only ever snogged one, and obviously I didn't even take it that seriously." said John.

"Why do I get the idea that there'll be much more than one this year? And every other year?" Harry asked.

"Because I can." John said simply.

"Cocky arsehole." said Ron, grinning at him.

"Anyway, I was also wondering, any idea as to what Hermione wants to do in the library tomorrow?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. Maybe research some kind of truth spell to put on Malfoy?" John asked.

"I don't know, that sounds a little dark for Hermione. Forcing someone to say what you want them to say. Hell that's dark for any of us." said Ron.

"True. I don't really know then, we'll just have to find out tomorrow." said John.


	7. The Chamber's First Victim

The next morning, in the library, to no one's surprise, Hermione and Delilah had the book Hermione wanted open already by the time the boys arrived.

"There you are! We've found it." Delilah whispered when the boys sat down beside them.

"Great. What is it?" John asked.

"It's called polyjuice potion. If we drink it, we can turn into whoever we need to. So, in essence, we're going to use it to turn into some Slytherin students. Crabbe and Goyle definitely at a bare minimum." said Hermione.

"Actually, I think it should be just Crabbe and Goyle. If we're turning into Slytherin students, we don't want too many to keep track of." said Ron.

"How d'you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well if we're being them, we have to make sure that the real ones can't be seen. We'd probably have to knock them out and stuff them in a broom cupboard or something. We can keep track of just Crabbe and Goyle, but imagine adding Parkinson, Bullstrode and Zabini to the mix. Keep it simple I say." said Ron.

"You're right Ron. So who'll be Crabbe and Goyle?" Delilah asked, looking at the boys.

"I'll be Crabbe." said Ron.

"I'll be Goyle." said Harry.

"Sorted. So how long will it be before the potion's ready?" John asked.

"A month." Hermione said bluntly.

" _A month?_ Hermione, if Malfoy's really the heir, he could have attacked half the muggleborns in the school!" Harry said, feeling slightly panicked.

"I know, but this is all we have in the way of a countermeasure." said Hermione, glumly.

"Well let's not waste any time. What do we need?" John asked.

Hermione gave him a list of the ingredients necessary for the potion.

"Shit. I didn't even know some of this stuff could even be used to make potions. At least we can get most of them from the student stores." said Harry.

"We'll go and get them." said Ron, referring to himself and John.

"Where should we bring them?" John asked.

"The girls' bathroom. Yes, the same one where the troll attacked me." said Hermione.

Ron and John looked at each other incredulously, but decided not to question someone with more brain power than either of them.

* * *

Ron and John showed up a while later outside the girls' bathroom carrying a bag of potions ingredients that they would be needing over the next month.

"Ah, you're back. Now Hermione, can you please explain why we're brewing a potion we shouldn't be brewing in broad daylight in a girls' bathroom?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, seems like we could get caught as soon as someone wants to take a piss." said Ron.

"I doubt it. Girls never come in here." said Hermione.

"Why?" John asked.

"You remember the deathday party?" Delilah asked.

"Don't remind me." said Ron.

"You remember moaning Myrtle?" Delilah continued.

"What Ron said." said John.

"She haunts this bathroom." said Hermione.

"Right." said Harry, understanding Hermione's thought process, as Ron and John emptied their ingredient bags onto the picnic cloth Hermione had laid out.

The five of them got to work at brewing the potion, and, despite an annoying interruption from Myrtle, they managed to do what they needed to do. They of course hoped to finish it in less than a month, but as Hermione said, it was an extremely complicated potion.

* * *

The next day marked arguably the most universally anticipated day of the school calendar - the official start of the Quidditch season, and of course, the season's opener was Gryffindor versus Slytherin.

This time though, for Harry (and John now too) there was a little bit more pressure involved - Malfoy was facing them, and Slytherin all had top-of-the-line racing brooms; brooms which were even better than Harry and John's already very high-end brooms.

Wood was the first to point it out in his pre-game pep talk.

"Slytherin does have better brooms than us." he said.

"But that means nothing. We've trained harder than them, and in all weathers." he continued, ignoring George saying "too right, I haven't been dry since August".

"And we have better players riding the brooms. Harry you're going to show them that it takes more than a rich dad to make a seeker. Fred, George, don't let up for a moment - make them feel every inch of those bludgers." Wood said with so much intensity that he didn't realize that John took it as an innuendo.

"Angelina, Katie, your teamwork has been spot-on, and John... well you just show them what it means to hit the ground running." said Wood.

"No pressure then." said Fred.

The fourteen players involved in the game walked out onto the pitch, and upon the whistle, rose into the air to universal applause - the anticipation was even higher than last year. Perhaps people across the school knew that Gryffindor had two pairs of brothers playing? Perhaps they knew about Harry and John's rivalry with Malfoy?

It didn't matter - the game started at a breakneck pace, and Slytherin's superior brooms were doing their jobs. Early on, they had taken a twenty point lead, but that wasn't what was on Harry's mind. One of the bludgers had spent the entire game targeting him, and him alone. Something wasn't right, bludgers were supposed to cause mayhem among the entire game, not one player...

It forced Fred and George to hang around Harry like a pair of bouncers, and with no protection, the other bludger was adversely affecting the Gryffindor team more than the Slytherin team. Despite this though, Harry heard Lee Jordan, the usual commentator say something which gave him some relief.

"What a play from Potter! He ties the game up, fifty-to fifty! He is proving to be quite a handful for Slytherin! He's certainly proven himself!" he said.

Wood had made some spectacular saves, and Slytherin's keeper simply wasn't a match for John, but despite Gryffindor's superior skill, Slytherin's brooms and the rogue bludger kept the game even.

"We need to call for a time out!" John yelled.

Wood reluctantly did so, and the Gryffindor team met down under their hoops.

"What's going on? Where were you when that bludger hit John in the chest?" Wood asked Fred and George angrily.

"Making sure that mad one didn't kill Harry! It's been on him all game, it hasn't made a move towards anyone else!" George replied.

"W-what? They've been locked in Madam Hooch's cupboard the whole time!" said Katie, her concern showing on her face.

"Well somehow, someone's tampered with them. I don't know who or how, but that's what I'm seeing." said Fred.

"Listen, we're not going to forfeit because of a mad bludger, but I won't catch the snitch with you two flying so close to me. Let me deal with it on my own. John's dominating the Slytherin chasers and keeper, with you playing as you normally would, they don't stand a chance." said Harry.

"That's crazy Harry!" said Angelina immediately.

"Actually, Nimbus 2000s are faster than bludgers, and if Malfoy and I chase the snitch at the same time, I reckon I could use him as a shield." said Harry, an uncharacteristically evil grin spreading across his face.

"I like where this is going." said John, matching Harry's grin.

"If you're sure then... I suppose we'll have to go with it." said Katie.

Wood called for the time out to end, and play resumed. Harry was right. With protection, Angelina and Katie were no longer nullified, and both of them proved to be a very powerful buffer for John. Gryffindor scored twice more, giving them a twenty point lead. However, the bludger, as expected spent more and more time trying to slam into Harry.

"Alright there scarhead?" Malfoy called out from above him as Harry swerved out of another attack from the bludger. Harry looked up at Malfoy and his eyes widened. The snitch was hovered directly above his head and Malfoy hadn't noticed. Flint wouldn't be happy with that, but Harry wasted no time and flew straight at Malfoy, the rogue bludger in tow. Malfoy ducked to avoid Harry and the bludger, and when he looked up, he realized that he had missed a golden opportunity to grab the snitch.

Harry heard Malfoy curse loudly before pursuing him, causing Harry to grin widely, despite being chased relentlessly by a bludger.

He could see the snitch, mere feet in front of him, and he reached out, trying desperately to grab it, but he spent a second too long reaching out. The bludger had finally hit him, at the back of his forearm and elbow. Harry could tell that his arm was broken. He saw Malfoy overtake him and smirk broadly at him.

"Having fun there?" he asked smugly.

Despite only having one arm, Harry turned his broom around, and managed to head Malfoy off. Harry could vaguely hear Lee commenting on John extending Gryffindor's lead, but he could barely pay attention - he thought he was about to pass out from the pain in his arm.

Malfoy looked to the side and gasped - he thought Harry was about to attack him and swerved out of the way. He could see the snitch mere feet in front of him again, but didn't reach out yet - he wouldn't do that until he was sure he could grab it.

To his horror, he saw the bludger out of the corner of his eye, making a line for another hit, but what he saw next shocked him.

John had dived off his broom, and somehow landed straight onto the bludger. This caused the bludger to be dragged down to the floor with John's weight. He heard John let out a grunt when he hit the floor, but he managed to hold on to the bludger. John's broom, meanwhile had flown into the Gryffindor stands, where Hagrid caught it.

John hadn't broken anything, if he were to guess, he had just bruised himself. The bludger was still putting up quite a fight.

He looked up and his eyes lit up - he had bought Harry the time he needed and Harry caught the snitch and won the game.

He didn't have time to dwell though, the bludger was still wrestling with him, but when Fred and George came down, they managed to force it back into the box.

"Aha, we won." Harry said weakly, looking at his good hand and seeing the snitch, before blacking out.

He woke up moments later to see gleaming white teeth.

"No... not you!" he said.

"Poor boy's delirious, he doesn't know what he's saying. Relax, this is a charm I've had to use countless times." said Lockhart.

"Just let me go to the hospital wing!" said Harry, but it was too late. Lockhart was twirling his wand, and to Harry's surprise, the pain stopped.

But when he heard John yell "What the fuck!" he realized his relief was short-lived.

Harry looked down at his arm and tried to move his fingers before he realized that Lockhart hadn't fixed his bones. He'd removed them.

"Ah yes, well that can sometimes happen. But the point is that you can no longer feel any pain. Well off to the hospital wing you go, Mister Potter, you escort him." said Lockhart.

As expected, Harry's escort consisted of more than just John - the Gryffindor team, Ron, Hermione and Delilah joined him. In fact, Fred, George and John had decided to carry him as if he were crowd-diving at a rock concert.

Harry was about to protest, but realized that he was feeling as if none of his muscles were functioning properly, and decided against it. Plus, he quite like the feeling of not having to do anything whilst still moving to where he needed to go.

"Harry, does anything else hurt?" Hermione asked.

"No. Actually I can't feel much of anything right now. This is really weird." said Harry, who realized he must have sounded drunk.

Delilah and Hermione exchanged worried looks.

"But you won though! Probably your best catch yet, and the look on Malfoy's face... priceless! said Ron.

"And John, you were fantastic! I don't think I've ever seen one player dominate an entire team like that!" said Katie. John was looking more than a little bit smug at when the others voiced their agreement.

When Harry arrived at the hospital wing however, things were less jovial. Madam Pomfrey had brought something called skele-gro and the taste made Harry want to vomit immediately.

Furthermore, Hermione pointed out that they had another thing to find out with the polyjuice potion - how Malfoy had enchanted the bludger.

Madam Pomfrey returned moments later.

"The should be back by tomorrow morning and then you'll be able to do whatever celebrations you want, but until then, everyone has to leave. Now. And Potter, you need to sleep." she said sternly.

* * *

Hours later, Harry woke up randomly in the pitch black to realize that someone was sponging his forehead.

"What the- Dobby?" Harry asked.

"Harry Potter returned to school." Dobby whispered miserably.

"If only Harry Potter heeded Dobby's warning! Dobby thought that when Harry Potter missed the train he wouldn't return another way!" said Dobby.

All of a sudden, everything about September the first made sense.

"You shut the barrier! You almost got us expelled!" said Harry, angrily.

"Indeed. Dobby had to iron his hands as his punishment." said Dobby, showing his ten long fingers, all bandaged.

Harry, despite Dobby's injury still felt furious.

"You'd better hope my bones don't grow back soon or I might strangle you!" he said, fiercely.

Dobby smiled weakly.

"Dobby is used to death threats sir. He gets them five times a day at home." said Dobby.

All of a sudden, Harry's anger dissipated and it was replaced with pity.

He looked at Dobby's pathetic form, covered in the filthy pillow case.

"Why do you wear that thing?" Harry asked.

"This sir? Tis a mark of a house elf's enslavement. Dobby remembers how it was for house elves before Harry Potter triumphed against He who must not be named! We house elves were treated like vermin! Of course Dobby is still treated like vermin. To free a house elf, the house elf must be presented with clothes, so Dobby's masters are careful not to hand Dobby so much as a sock." Dobby explained.

"Does it have to be your masters?" Harry asked.

"Yes sir. But enough about Dobby! Harry Potter must go home! Dobby thought his bludger-" Dobby started.

"Your bludger... _Your bludger?_ I don't suppose you have any reason for trying to kill me?" Harry asked furiously.

"No sir! Never kill you! Dobby hoped Harry Potter would be sent home!" Dobby explained frantically.

"If I was sent home it'd be in pieces!" said Harry.

"Dobby knows this sir, and Dobby will have to hammer his knees for this!" said Dobby.

"No Dobby, whatever you do, don't punish yourself for me. Tell me why I have to go home! Is it because of the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked.

Dobby's eyes widening was the only cue he needed.

"So it is! Has this happened before?" Harry asked, pressing his advantage. Dobby's lack of an answer told him that the chamber had indeed been opened before.

"Who opened it then? Who's opened it now?" Harry asked.

"Dobby can't say! Dobby only wishes for Harry Potter to be safe!" said Dobby.

"I'm not muggleborn! Why would I be in danger?" Harry asked.

"Can't... say! Please sir, just go home!" Dobby begged.

"No! One of my best friends is muggleborn, so's my cousin! I'm not leaving them to be attacked!" Harry replied.

"Harry Potter's nobility shows again, but Dobby cannot allow Harry Potter to-" Dobby started, before voices could be heard coming towards the hospital wing. With a click of his fingers, Dobby vanished.

Harry, pretending to be asleep, listened and watched the entrance to the hospital wing. He saw McGonagall and Dumbledore now looking over a bed with a new occupant - Colin Creevy.

He heard McGonagall saying that he'd been petrified.

It had started... A muggleborn student had been attacked already.

* * *

When Harry was released from hospital the next morning, he was immediately desperate to tell the others about Dobby's visit and everything he'd learned. He did manage to do so eventually, but the more pressing matter was about whether or not it really was Malfoy who opened it.

However, when Harry told them that the Chamber had been opened before, Ron seemed convinced.

"That's it. Lucius Malfoy must've opened it last time, and now he's told Draco how to do it." said Ron.

Harry had to admit that it made sense at least.

"It does make sense, but we can't make accusations without proof. Innocent until proven guilty and all that." said Delilah.

"What?" Harry and Ron asked simultaneously.

"Hermione spent a while hammering this point home to me at some point last year when I thought Malfoy stole my chocolate frogs. The justice system in countries like ours presume innocence of anyone accused, and it's on the accusers to prove that they're guilty. That way innocent people don't get locked up. But why she chose to explain it over my chocolate frogs is beyond me." said John, causing Hermione to blush.

"I get carried away sometimes." said Hermione in a very small voice.

"More than sometimes." John whispered to Harry and Ron, causing them to snicker.

"So how's the potion going?" Harry asked, as he had walked in on them halfway through the day's potion brewing.

"Good. I think we'll be able to finish most of it by tomorrow, and after that, we just have to wait twenty one days for it to mature properly." said Hermione.

"Brilliant. We just need to figure out how to act like Crabbe and Goyle then." said Harry.

"That's not difficult. Just pretend your brain's been replaced by an extra stomach." said Delilah, causing the others to laugh.

"Are you sure you're not talking about Ron or John though?" Harry added, which made John flick his ear.

"Oi!"

* * *

News spread fast that Colin was attacked by whatever the Chamber was hiding. A surge of trading unbeknownst to the teachers began, enchanted amulets and other trinkets to ward off whatever the monster was. Were they in the muggle world, it would all be junk, but at least in the wizarding world, they knew no one (or at least very few people) were being scammed.

Ginny, who sat next to Colin in charms was distraught. Fred and George were trying to cheer her up, but in the wrong way, namely jumping out at her in the corridors. Percy was of course furious and threatened to write to Mrs. Weasley - Fred and George's one weakness.

John, who planned on trying to cheer Ginny up in a similar way, decided against it and tried to emulate a more 'Hermione-ish' method, and he and Ron found her sitting alone in the library. She looked both terrified and lonely.

"Mind if we sit here?" Ron asked.

Ginny shook her head, allowing her brother and John joined her.

"You know Fred and George weren't trying to make you feel worse, right?" Ron asked.

"I know but still... it all scares me. And Colin..." Ginny started.

John surveyed Ginny for a moment. She looked... guilty, almost. Why?

He decided not to dwell on it though.

"He's been petrified, yeah I know, but he's not dead, and besides, I heard that Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout already know what to do." said John.

"Do they?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, they're preparing something called a Mandrake draught. Basically, you chop up these plants called Mandrakes and stew them and petrified people go back to normal." said John.

"Oh." said Ginny, who didn't seem to feel any better.

"Don't worry too much about it, OK? Just stick with people you know if you feel really scared. If you can't find anyone else, you can come find us." said Ron.

Ginny nodded, but despite their efforts, she didn't look any better.

"We need to keep an eye on her." said Ron, as he and John left the library.

"Yeah, plus something does seem a bit off about her. I mean not just the fact that she's worried about her friend." said John.

"D'you think she knows something?" Ron asked, worried.

"No, I doubt it. I think maybe she was the one who found Colin and it affected her badly. Something like that at least." said John.

"Blimey, I don't know what'd be worse." said Ron, looking back towards the library where Ginny remained.

"Don't worry, when the potion's ready, hopefully we'll be closer to sorting all this out. If it really is Malfoy, then we can just tell Dumbledore and this crap will all be over." said John. Ron, however was not quite so optimistic.

"When's anything ever that simple?"


	8. Dueling

**I'm going to be doing a bit of a different take on how everyone reacts to Harry's parseltongue speech at the dueling club, I really want to know what you all think.**

A couple of weeks later, Hermione had some bad news regarding the polyjuice potion for it to finally be complete - they needed some ingredients that were not to be found in the student storerooms, rather they would have to somehow sneak into Snape's storeroom to get them.

"Shouldn't be too hard, should it? I mean we have the cloak." said Ron.

"Yes, but Snape would notice his storeroom's door being opened by someone invisible. We need to cause a distraction in the lesson." said Delilah.

"Easy enough." said John.

Harry didn't share John's sentiments - purposefully causing a scene in one of Snape's classes was arguably less safe than diving into a tank filled with piranhas.

"I'll do the actual stealing, since you three have already caused a lot of trouble." said Hermione.

"So what should we do to cause a scene?" Delilah asked.

"We're meant to be making swelling solutions today if that helps." said Harry.

"I've got it!" said Ron.

"What?" John asked.

"Fred gave me a Filibuster's firework. I reckon we could sneak it into someone's cauldron." said Ron proudly.

"And by someone-" John started, grinning.

"I mean Malfoy." Ron finished, mirroring John's grin.

"Perfect. I'll get the cloak Hermione." said Harry.

The potions lesson went as expected - they were indeed preparing swelling solutions, and John was ready to sneak the firework into Malfoy's cauldron.

Hermione gave John a nod to tell him to do it then and there, and as Snape swept past him towards the other side of the classroom, he ducked under his table and headed towards Malfoy's table. Somehow he managed to drop the firework in, and on cue, cast a quick _incendio_ , thus setting the firework off.

What followed was utter pandemonium. Several Slytherins were sprayed with Malfoy's admittedly well-prepared swelling solution, with odd parts of their faces and bodies mushrooming to tremendous sizes. Goyle's ear was now the size of a small plate, Malfoy's nose was the size of an apple, and Crabbe's hand was bigger than his own face.

John struggled not to laugh when he reached his table again, and the same could be said for Harry and Ron. Delilah smirked slightly but stayed composed.

Hermione, as expected was nowhere to be seen as she was under the cloak and Snape was livid.

"SILENCE! Everyone who was sprayed with the swelling solution come to my desk for an antidote. When I find out who did this, they will be expelled, no questions asked." Snape seethed, picking up the black remnant of the firework next to Malfoy's now obliterated cauldron.

To John's surprise, Snape looked directly at him, as if seeing straight through his innocent face. But he couldn't know... how would he have any idea?

"Snape knew it was me." said John, after the lesson was over and Hermione was adding the ingredients.

"How is that even possible?" Delilah asked.

"I don't know - he just... sort of looked at me. I put on my normal innocent face which works on damn near everyone, and somehow it felt like he saw right through me... I think he can read minds or something" said John.

"Well whether he can or not, it doesn't matter. Remember, innocent until proven guilty, and Snape can't prove anything." said Hermione.

"Hope you're right." said John.

Once they had done the day's work for the potion and headed back to the common room, they saw some of their other friends, like Neville, Seamus and Dean gathered around the notice board and chatting excitedly.

"Guys, what's going on?" John asked.

"They're starting a dueling club! because of whatever's come out of the Chamber of Secrets!" Dean explained enthusiastically.

"Slytherin's monster can duel?" Ron asked, confused.

"I doubt it, but it would still be useful to learn, wouldn't it?" Hermione said.

"Where is it held then?" Delilah asked.

"Great hall, first meeting's in about two hours for second years." John read.

Sure enough, the Gryffindors (and seemingly everyone else) waited the two hours and all showed up at the great hall. However, the person organizing and teaching the dueling club made Harry, Ron and John groan. Who else, but Gilderoy Lockhart. Worse still, he was accompanies by Snape.

However, the contrast between their attire was rather amusing. Lockhart was wearing bright blue robes with a red trim, whilst Snape was donning a black outfit as per usual.

"Gather round! Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me?" Lockhart asked, and upon seeing the students generally nodding, he continued.

"Excellent. Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this dueling club in light of the recent events, and Professor Snape will be serving as my assistant and fellow demonstrator!" said Lockhart. Snape did not look happy. Not in the slightest.

"Never fear, you'll still have your potions master in one piece when this is through!" said Lockhart.

Harry had no idea why Lockhart was smiling. Snape's lips were curled sinisterly and if Snape was looking at him like that... well there wouldn't be a smile on his face, that was for sure.

"Wouldn't it be great if they finished each other off?" Ron whispered, causing Harry and John to smirk.

"Don't say things like that!" Hermione chastised.

John rolled his eyes.

"It's a joke Hermione." said Ron, flatly.

"We will be aiming to disarm each other, no genuinely harmful spells will be used." said Lockhart.

"I wouldn't be so sure." said John, looking at Snape, who was doing everything in his power not to start growling at Lockhart.

"Before a duel begins, we bow to each other." said Lockhart, as he and Snape did so.

"And bring out wands to the accepted combat position." said Lockhart, as the two professors brought their wands in front of them like swords.

John was curious. Lockhart almost sounded like he knew what he was talking about...

"On the count of three, we cast our first spells. One... two... three... Expelliarmus!" Lockhart said his incantation at the same time as Snape, and after a dazzling flash of red light, Lockhart was blasted off his feet, and he flew into a wall, before sliding down back onto the floor.

The Slytherins cheered, and John burst out laughing.

"Do you think he's alright?" Hermione asked, worried.

"Who cares?" Harry and Ron said simultaneously.

"It was a good idea to show them that Professor Snape, but need I say that it was pretty obvious what you were going to do, and if I wanted to stop it, it would have only been too easy, but it was good of you to show the students, and as you can see, I have been disarmed, oh thank you Miss Brown." said Lockhart, as Lavender handed him his wand back.

Lockhart took one look at the now furious Snape, and decided to stop with the showmanship.

"Enough demonstrations for now, Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me pair the students up?" said Lockhart.

Snape immediately made his way over to Harry, Ron, John, Hermione and Delilah.

"I think I should split up the dream team." said Snape, sneering at them.

"Weasley, partner Finnigan. Granger, with Miss Bullstrode. Potter, with Malfoy, and you Potter... with Goyle. Dursley, with Parkinson." said Snape.

Harry and Malfoy eyed each other up with nothing but venom.

As soon as Lockhart gave the signal to start, chaos erupted. Spells were being thrown about left, right and centre. John had effortlessly knocked Goyle out with a blasting curse and stood there with a smug smile on his face. Ron and Seamus had managed to put on a relatively competent duel, whilst Malfoy and Harry were simply exchanging hexes.

Delilah and Pansy Parkinson had given up on using their wands and were pulling on each others' hair, and trying to hit each other. Millicent Bullstrode, a girl who was almost as big as John had similar ideas, but with Bullstrode being the size she was, she overpowered Hermione very quickly and held her in a headlock as Hermione whimpered in pain.

John noticed this and pulled the them apart.

"I guess the concept of wizard's dueling is lost on you. You could always try picking on someone your own size, but I wouldn't hold back just because you're a girl." he said to Bullstrode, who seemed to shrink before him.

Ron and Seamus, meanwhile ran over to Delilah and Pansy Parkinson and pulled them apart. Delilah's lip was swollen and bleeding, and she had in turn given Parkinson a heavy nosebleed and a bruised cheek.

"Blimey you girls need to calm down!" said Ron.

Eventually, Goyle had come to, and wanted to sucker-punch John, but before he did, Lockhart tried to take control of the situation.

"Stop, STOP!" Lockhart yelled, but to no avail, before Snape took over

"Finite Incantatem!" he yelled, and all of the curses that were in effect had ceased and the students looked to Lockhart and Snape.

"It seems that I must teach you all how to block unfriendly spells. I need a volunteer pair, Finch-Fletchley, Longbottom, how about you?" Lockhart said.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be prudent Professor. Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. He'd be sending Finch-Fletchley to the hospital wing in a matchbox. Might I suggest Potter and Malfoy?" Snape said, an evil looking smile on his face.

Malfoy and Harry stepped forward, and after a weak attempt from Lockhart to teach Harry how to block curses (in which Lockhart dropped his wand), Harry and Malfoy pointed their wands at each other. Malfoy was the first one to attack, but he didn't use just any spell.

" _Serpensortia!"_ said Malfoy, and out of his wand erupted a gigantic black cobra.

Harry stood rooted to his spot so as not to make any sudden movements. The snake then rounded on Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Don't move anyone. I'll get rid of it." said Snape.

"Allow me Professor Snape!" said Lockhart, who twirled his wand and said some random incantation which caused the snake to fly ten feet in the air, before simply landing back where it was. It reared up and hissed fiercely at Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Harry didn't know what made him do it, but he stepped towards the snake and tried to reason with it, like the pyhton over a year ago,

"Leave him alone." said Harry, and to his delight, the snake backed away, before a stunned looking Snape disintegrated it.

Lockhart promptly concluded the dueling club meeting. Almost everyone present looked terrified of Harry.

"What are you playing at?" Justin asked, looking both furious and terrified.

"He's the heir!" yelled Millicent Bullstrode.

"What? What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"You just spoke Parseltongue! Were you egging that snake on?" asked Ernie MacMillan.

"No! I told it to leave him alone! You saw it back down! And what the hell is parseltongue!" Harry replied.

"Potter, parseltongue is in essence, the language of snakes. Some wizards can speak it. Very, very few wizards. Wizards such as Salazar Slytherin and he-who-must-not-be-named." Snape explained.

Harry's eyes widened. Suddenly it all made sense. No wonder people thought he was the heir of Slytherin. Harry didn't know enough about his lineage to comment on whether or not he was, but he knew for sure he didn't attack Colin...

John was the first to come to Harry's defence.

"OK, hang on a second. Harry, heir of Slytherin? Do you have any idea how stupid you sound? Harry stopped Voldemort when we were babies. Harry and I stopped him again just last year. We're in Gryffindor. Professor Lockhart, you can vouch for Harry, he wasn't there to attack Mrs. Norris, and the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team can vouch for him being in the hospital wing when Colin was attacked. So if you seriously think Harry, of all people is the heir of Slytherin, then go away and learn how to think." said John, who was furious.

"Just because he's a paselmouth, doesn't mean he's a bad bloke! How bloody thick are you lot?" Ron asked.

Harry felt an immense amount of affection towards John and Ron in that moment.

"Enough Weasley, Potter, you may defend Potter, but you cannot insult all of the students present here. Ten points from Gryffindor." said Snape.

The Gryffindors didn't seem to mind this time. In fact every student present looked extremely guilty.

* * *

"You never told us you were a parselmouth!" Ron said to Harry later in the common room.

"I thought it was something loads of wizards could do! John, you're one too!" said Harry.

Ron looked at John incredulously.

"Yeah, I am. Honestly, I had no idea it had ties to the likes of Salazar Slytherin." said John.

"Well you should be grateful John and Ron had some common sense when you were accused. It's seen as quite sinister." said Hermione.

"Yeah, I get that. I feel like John and Ron got me to dodge a bullet there." said Harry.

"Dodge a what?" Ron asked.

"Bullet. Muggles have guns, which fire bullets which can kill people. Dodging a bullet is a muggle saying when you avoid something bad." said Delilah.

"That's not the point. The point is that there's a chance that Slytherin's heir is a parselmouth, since Slytherin himself was one. I don't know why I didn't think of this before. It's a small chance since it's been so long since he was around, but it's a chance nonetheless. If it is Malfoy though, I'd be surprised now because you'd think Malfoy would be rather boastful about having such a rare gift." said Hermione.

"True. But hey, we'll find out once that potion's ready." said Harry.

"That'll be about a week. What do we do until then?" Delilah asked.

"Be ourselves I suppose. Regular school life for once." said Hermione.

"I wonder if Sally's free..." John mused.

Delilah sighed.

"Another one of those girls you get to be absurdly shallow with then?" she asked.

"Delilah, I'm twelve. I'm not meant to be having adult relationships. Clam down." said John.

"If you say so." said Delilah.

* * *

Predictably, John returned to the common room over an hour later with lipstick marks on his collar and cheek, a goofy smile on his face.

Seamus was the first to notice.

"Blimey John, first Hannah, now who was it?" Seamus asked.

"Sally Anne Perks." said John, smirking.

John wasn't surprised with Delilah's disapproving look, but thought little of it.

Ron, however, had more to say.

"Need a wingman?" Ron asked.

"Not really, but you can feel free to join me as I conquer the lovely ladies of Hogwarts, one broom-cupboard at a time." John replied, looking smug as ever.

"How eloquent." Hermione said dryly.

"I expected more disapproval from you Hermione." said Harry.

"What John's doing isn't exactly my style, but to each their own." she said.

"I just think that one day you're going to hurt someone. I know it won't be on purpose, but still..." said Delilah.

"Yeah, but I reckon that girl will know what John's after in the first place. If she expects more then it's her fault, not John's." said Dean reasonably.

"Exactly. If I make my intentions clear then I've pretty much done all I can. The rest is up to them. I'm not about to bend over backwards for a girl who won't tell me what she expects. It takes two to tango after all." said John.

"Fine, but if you start lying to them, I won't be impressed." said Delilah flatly.

"Didn't we already have this conversation?" John asked.

"Yes, but I just can't shake that feeling." said Delilah.

"Well whatever the case, you'll just have to shake it by seeing what actually happens. I'm not about to stop, it's great fun." said John, smirking.

"Well before talking about this gives Delilah a stroke or something, should we head out to rugby?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, we should have left a few minutes ago anyway, we were just waiting for you John." said Seamus.

* * *

Rugby as usual went particularly well for John, who had been appointed as the captain for the first and second year Gryffindor team. He also looked to be the front runner for the school captain for the third and fourth year next year, when they'd be playing muggle clubs or schools.

Malfoy was of course furious. He was under the impression that purebloods, as "superior" people, would easily master muggle sports, and yet the best players in their year were Ron and John, a blood traitor and a half-blood raised by muggles.

The Gryffindors had a good laugh about Malfoy's reaction. It was made even better by the fact that Malfoy seemed to enjoy rugby. Something he enjoyed that he was being consistently bested in, and with very little effort on Ron or John's part.

"I bet you're cheating." he said loudly to Crabbe and Goyle after the practice session.

"How the hell would we do that? I mean apart from breaking the rules of rugby of course, but we clearly don't do that." said John.

"I don't know, a strength potion or something, but there's no way _you're_ that much better than me." said Malfoy

"Why's that Malfoy?" asked Ron, who was deeply enjoying the situation.

"I'm a pure-blooded wizard. Muggle games should be far beneath my abilities." he said, loftily.

"Malfoy, what you just said is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Everyone who heard it is now dumber for having heard it. Rugby is about physical strength and fitness and skills which you only earn with practice. Really... I've shat out smarter stuff than you." said John.

"We'll see what my father has to say about this then." Malfoy snarled.

"I expected as much. Yeah, you can go home and run to daddy while us real men play some rugby." said Ron, mockingly clapping Malfoy on the back.

"Don't touch me Weasley." Malfoy replied, before skulking off.

"Finally, a way to chop down his ego." said John.

"Yeah, if only we could do the same to yours..." said Ron.


	9. The 'Culprit'

The (not so) eagerly anticipated night of the polyjuice potion finally came, and Hermione, Harry and Ron were getting ready to drink what looked to be a truly disgusting concoction, whilst John and Delilah were the lucky ones who got to wait in the bathroom with Myrtle.

Whilst Hermione for whatever reason chose not to go and hide in a bathroom stall, Harry and Ron's infiltration as Crabbe and Goyle was successful and they found themselves sat in the Slytherin common room with none other than Draco Malfoy, who as usual, had a lot to say (after a close brush with Percy)

"You'd never think the Weasleys were pure-blooded, with the way they behave. Every single one of them is just a walking embarrassment to the wizarding world. Nothing more." Malfoy said, his voice dripping with his own perceived superiority. Ron's blood already began to boil, but a pointed look from Harry kept him under control.

"I'm surprised the prophet hasn't done any reporting on all these attacks. It's probably Dumbledore, trying to hush it all up. Father always said that mad old codger was the worst thing that ever happened to this place." Malfoy said bitterly.

For a moment, Harry and Ron were amazed that Malfoy actually attempted something of an intellectual conversation with Crabbe and Goyle, but as soon as the comment about Dumbledore came out of his mouth, the rational part of Harry's brain stopped working.

"You're wrong." he said simply.

"What?" Malfoy asked. Clearly, he wasn't used to being disagreed with, let alone by someone with the intelligence of Goyle.

"You're trying to tell me that someone in this school is worse than Dumbledore?" Malfoy continued.

It was now Ron's turn to salvage the situation.

"The Potters." Ron grunted in a manner startlingly similar to Crabbe.

A very satisfied grin spread over Malfoy's face.

"Good one Crabbe. Totally right. Those two think they're bloody saints or something, the way they strut about the castle. Crazy to think that people were almost convinced that one of them is the heir of Slytherin." said Malfoy.

"But you must have some idea about who's behind this stuff?" Harry asked, in a satisfactory impression of Goyle.

"You know I don't Goyle, I've told you already. How many times do I have to tell you?" Malfoy replied impatiently, whilst pocketing someone else's small Christmas present.

"My father did say this though. The last time the chamber was opened, fifty years ago a mudblood died. He never told me who did it. He just told me that they were expelled. But if that's true, then it's only a matter of time before one of them is killed this time round. For me It's a toss-up between Dursley and Granger, but if I had to pick one, it'd have to be Granger." Malfoy said, grinning evilly.

It took both Harry and Ron everything they had to not grab Malfoy's smug face and slam it against a wall.

Before the conversation could continue, Harry's eyes stopped dead on Ron's head. Malfoy was thankfully distracted in opening his (stolen) present. Harry mouthed 'hair' to Ron, who understood immediately.

"Oh, we've got that detention with McGonagal, see you later!" said Harry in a rush, as he and Ron ran off. Malfoy thankfully seemed to pay little to no attention.

The two of them sprinted back to Myrtle's bathroom, and found John and Delilah waiting for them.

"We've got loads to tell you! Where's Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Uhh..." John said, before pointing to the bathroom stall.

"Try to keep yourselves under control when you see her." said Delilah.

Myrtle chose that moment to give her own opinion.

"Wait until you see...it's awful!" she said, gleefully.

"I get that looking like Bullstrode is a big downgrade for you Hermione but... Oh. Well then..." said Ron, upon seeing Hermione.

She was now quite literally, a humanoid cat. Or a feline human. It didn't make any sense until Hermione explained it.

"The polyjuice potion is meant for human transformations only. I picked cat's hair of Bullstrode's robes. Look at my face..." said Hermione.

"Ok, let's not freak out too much here, we'll take you to Madam Pomfrey, she doesn't ask too many questions, which has obviously helped me out a lot, it's about time you benefitted from that." said John.

"Yeah, we'll tell the professors you're in the hospital wing during lessons, you won't be in any trouble." said Ron.

"Are you sure? What if some of them ask questions, I'm sure professor Snape-"Hermione started.

"Relax, I've covered for myself before, this'll be easy. Besides, the professors all love you and Snape... tolerates you, they'll let you off this one time." John said.

Hermione, who was clearly feeling very emotional and upset, ran forward and gave the others hug.

John, Ron and Harry looked at each other, not having any idea on how to deal with the situation, but Delilah rubbed Hermione's back soothingly. John burst out laughing when he heard Hermione purring.

"Did- you just... purr?" John said, struggling to speak between his laughs.

Harry and Ron followed suit and laughed uncontrollably themselves. Delilah gave Hermione a sheepish smile.

"It is a bit funny..." she said, her cheeks very red.

Hermione had by now recovered emotionally and rolled her cat-like eyes.

"Yes, yes, alright, Hermione just purred because she's feeling very emotional and happens to be a human cat. Can we go to the hospital wing now?" she asked impatiently.

* * *

Rumors about Hermione's dissapearance were rampant for a week or so but they died down once Harry, Ron Delilah and John had told everyone that she was fine (ish) and was just in the hospital wing temporarily.

Hermione's mood was much better than the evening when she first transformed, though it was in part due to the fact that she no longer had a tail or fur covering her face. Her eyes were still somewhat feline, but they looked human enough. They just weren't brown again yet.

"If I found whiskers on my face I think I'd take a break from all this work." said Ron one evening as they visited Hermione.

"Don't be ridiculous, I can't fall behind." said Hermione. They had been bringing her all the work their teachers had been setting.

Harry spotted something gold sticking out from under her pillow.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Just a get well card." said Hermione, trying to poke it out of sight, but Ron was faster, and grabbed it.

"To Miss Granger, wishing you a speedy recovery, from your concerned teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third class, Honorary member of the dark force defense league, and five times winner of Witch Weekly's most charming smile award. And you're sleeping with this under your pillow?" Ron asked, completely baffled.

"You still haven't noticed that he doesn't know shit, have you?" John asked, rolling his eyes.

Hermione was spared from engaging in one of the few arguments that she'd have lost by Madam Pomfrey arriving with her medicine.

"Is Lockhart the smarmiest bloke you've met or what?" Ron asked.

"I don't know, we know a certain Slytherin who'd gladly contest that title." said Delilah.

Before they could get on with their discussion, they heard angry grumbling from the floor above.

"That's Filch. Wonder what's going on there?" John asked.

They went to said floor to see Filch, grumbling about having yet more to clean and so on and so forth, before they realized what was happening. The floor was flooded, and it was coming from Myrtle's bathroom.

"Why's she done that?" Harry asked.

"Only one way to find out." said Ron, leading the way to her bathroom.

Sure enough, all of the taps were running in the bathroom, and Myrtle was floating above them, looking particularly upset.

"Come to throw something else at me?" she asked sarcastically.

"Why would I do that?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. Here I was, minding my own business, and somebody thinks it's funny to throw a book at me." said Myrtle.

"But you can't even feel it, why does it bother you?" John asked.

This evidently, was the worst thing he could have said.

"Sure! Let's all throw things at Myrtle because she can't feel it! Ten points if you hit her stomach! Fifty you hit her head!" she screamed.

"But who threw it at you?" Harry asked, trying to calm the situation.

"I don't know. I was just sitting in my U-bend and it fell through the top of my head!" she said, pointing at a shabby black book on the floor, as wet as everything else in the bathroom.

Harry went to grab it but was stopped by Ron.

"Are you crazy? It could be dangerous!" Ron warned.

"It's a book." Delilah said dryly.

"You'd be surprised. Some of the books dad confiscated are pretty dangerous, like the one which would burn the eyes out of any reader. Or the one which you could never stop reading. Or the one that forced you to speak in Limmericks for the rest of your life. Or-" Ron explained.

"Alright, we get the point, but there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" John asked, picking it up.

He saw that it was in fact, a diary, and that it was fifty years old.

"What the hell?" he asked.

"What?" Ron asked.

"It's a fifty year old diary." said John, before flicking through the pages.

"An empty fifty year old diary." John added.

"Does it have a name anywhere?" Delilah asked.

"Hold on... yeah. Tom Marvolo Riddle. That name sounds familiar... not in a good way." said John. Harry silently agreed. Something about that name made him feel uneasy.

"Wait a minute, he's the guy who got special awards for services to the school fifty years back!" said Ron.

"How did you know that?" Delilah asked, completely amazed.

"Filch made me polish his trophy about fifty times." Ron said, resentfully.

* * *

Hermione returned from the hospital wing two days later, with one hundred percent human features again, and was immediately shown the diary.

"It might have hidden powers!" Hermione said enthusiastically.

"If it does it's been hiding them very well. I don't get why you don't want to chuck it." said Ron. Harry didn't want to throw it away, he had pocketed it instead. John saw no use for it.

"Because this thing is fifty years old. The chamber was last opened fifty years ago, and Tom Riddle got special awards for services to the school." Harry explained.

"Exactly, and if his award was for catching whoever opened the chamber, this diary could tell us everything!" Hermione added.

"Yes, well that would be a great theory, but there's one problem. Nothing's written in the damn thing." said John.

"It could be invisible ink?" Delilah suggested.

Without another word, Delilah tried an 'Aparecium' spell on it, to no effect. Hermione then tried to use a revealer on it, also to no effect.

"Like John said. It's useless. Riddle got a diary for Christmas but he didn't have any use for it." said Ron.

"Something about his name still rubs me the wrong way though." said John.

"And there has to be a reason why the empty diary of someone who was a student fifty years ago is still in this school, not in the rubbish or destroyed or something. And there has to be a reason why someone wanted to flush it down a toilet instead of putting it in a bin. I agree with John too, something about the name Tom Marvolo Riddle doesn't seem right." said Harry.

"His name has nothing to do with his empty diary though Harry." said John.

Harry still decided to keep the diary. He also decided to try to find out more about Riddle.

This included a visit to the trophy room, where they found out that Riddle was a prefect and head boy.

"Sounds like Percy." Ron said unenthusiastically.

There weren't many mentions of Riddle anywhere, just a few here and there regarding his impressive academic achievements and his head boy status, as well as his special award (though the reason for said reward was never revealed, which all but confirmed that he was the one who caught the person responsible for the chamber's opening).

As for the rest of the school, no one had been attacked in a while, most likely due to everyone being so alert and suspicious. Some even thought that the threat had ended. Lockhart thought it was down to him, saying that the heir was being sensible, as more attacks would have lead him to 'come down hard' on the heir.

"I think the heir will bother us no longer Minerva. I think everyone needs a morale booster. In fact, I have just the thing for that..." Lockhart was telling McGonagall one afternoon.

* * *

Lockhart's idea of a morale booster became painfully obvious the next morning. Harry and John woke up somewhat late due to a long Quidditch practice the evening before, and when they walked into the Great hall for breakfast, they could have sworn they'd walked into the wrong room. It was February the fourteenth, and Lockhart had made that date extremely obvious. There were flowers and ribbons absolutely everywhere.

Heart shaped confetti floated about above the heads of the students. Lockhart himself was wearing the brightest, pinkest set of men's robes either of them had ever seen. McGonagall however, could be seen with her cheek muscles twitching in anger, and Snape looked as if he was ready to poison himself.

The pair of them sat down to a sickened looking wrong and a very giggly Hermione and Delilah.

"What the fuck... is this?" John asked.

"He's about to explain." Ron said, pointing at Lockhart.

"Happy Valentine's day to all! I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all! I also thank the forty-six people who have already sent me valentine's cards as well! Now, may I introduce my card carrying cupids?" Lockhart said, pointing at the Great hall's doors.

No less than a dozen dwarves wearing golden wings, carrying harps walked through the doors.

"They will be roaming the school, taking and delivering Valentine's day cards to whomever you wish! And why stop there? Ask Professor Snape if you want to brew the strongest love potions you'll ever see! Or Professor Flitwick, who knows more about entrancing enchantments than anyone else I've ever met, the sly dog!" said Lockhart.

Snape and Flitwick's heads snapped towards Lockhart, both of them giving him murderous glares.

Throughout the day, the dwarves interrupted lessons, giving musical valentines to students. Harry received at least ten from first years (one of them happened to be Ginny).

John did of course tease him for it.

"You know, glaring at me isn't too threatening when your eyes remind me of fresh pickled toads." said John, who could barely contain himself.

"Oh just you wait until you get your Valentines..." Harry said, knowingly.

Harry wasn't wrong. John got no less than a dozen himself, mostly from girls in their year or the year above. None of them were quite as embarrassing as Harry's, but one of them did interrupt Snape's potions lesson.

Snape looked like he was about to punish John for it, but upon seeing the mortified look on John's face, Snape let out a rare grin and decided that the Valentine was punishment enough.

"What? Not planning on using your 'rippling muscles' to break my nose?" Harry said, getting back at John's earlier pickled toad comment.

"Don't tempt me toad-boy." said John.

The Valentines were the subject of much nastier teasing from Malfoy though.

"I don't think Potter liked your Valentine very much! he called to Ginny, who was only walking past. Ginny proceeded to bury her face in her hands.

"I don't think human beings like _you_ very much!" John called to Malfoy, who didn't have a retort and skulked off.

"Come on Ginny, don't worry about it. Malfoy's an arse." said Ron, trying to comfort Ginny.

The rest of the day dragged on, until Harry decided to have another go at inspecting Riddle's diary.

He sat at a secluded table in the library, and tried dropping some ink onto it, just to see what happened. The ink shone for a moment, and gradually disappeared completely.

He was now onto something. Excited, he tried writing something down.

"My name is Harry Potter." he tried.

The ink disappeared as before. This time though, there was an answer. In some very neat handwriting, the message "Hello Harry Potter. My name is Tom Riddle. How did you come by my diary" appeared.

Harry gaped at the book for a moment before continuing.

"Someone tried to flush it down a toilet. I found it in a bathroom." Harry wrote.

"Luckily I recorded my memories in something more lasting than just ink. But I always knew that there would be those who would not want this diary read." Riddle said.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I mean that terrible things once happened. At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Riddle explained.

"That's where I am now. It's happening again. Do you know anything about the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked.

"Yes. We were told that it was merely a legend but that was a lie. In my fifth year, it was opened and a girl died, after several other students were attacked. I caught the one responsible. It was all covered up however, a story was concocted that the girl died in a freak accident and I was forbidden to speak of the events, as was every other student." Riddle said.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Harry asked.

"No. But if you like, I can show you. I could take you into my memories, fifty years ago, to the day when I caught the one responsible." said Riddle.

Against his better Judgement, Harry wrote 'yes' onto the diary, and before he knew it, he felt himself being whisked away somewhere by some unknown force, his feet eventually landing on solid ground inside a familiar office. Dumbledore's office.

Dumbledore however, was not the one sitting at the desk. Fawkes the phoenix was not present either, nor were Dumbledore's many whirring silver contraptions.

A frail, old wizard sat there.

"I didn't mean to intrude sir, I'll just leave." Harry said, politely.

The wizard didn't respond. Perhaps he was deaf?

"I'll just be leaving, I don't want to bother you." Harry repeated, loudly.

Just then, the door opened, and a boy of roughly sixteen entered. He walked straight through Harry. Harry then understood. This was Riddle's memory, Harry wasn't actually there. The boy in front of him was Tom Riddle.

Harry observed as Riddle and the headmaster (revealed to be headmaster Dippet) talked about how Tom didn't want to return to the muggle orphanage he would have lived at. Harry couldn't help but notice similarities between himself and Riddle. They thought Hogwarts to be their primary homes. They were orphans. They even looked something alike. But perhaps most eerily of all, was when Dippet asked Tom whether there was something he wanted to tell him. The way Riddle said "no." was almost identical to the way Harry had told Dumbledore the same thing. Was Riddle a great uncle or something?

Harry found himself absent-mindedly following Riddle as he pondered his similarities with Riddle, to the dungeons. Harry watched in shock, as Riddle revealed that it was Hagrid who he caught. The monster was a spider, the biggest spider Harry had ever seen. Harry felt himself return to the library with a whooshing sensation, which is when Hermione, Delilah, Ron and John chose to walk in. Harry explained what he saw.

"Hold on, I can barely wrap my head round this shit. Hagrid? Of all people?" John asked.

"We all know he likes... different creatures." Delilah said, solemnly.

"And he was expelled." Harry added.

"I'm not believing this though. Hagrid was definitely framed. This Riddle guy sounds like a dirty snitch to me." Ron said, firmly.

"The monster killed someone Ron, what would you have done? Besides, the attacks stopped after Hagrid's expulsion. It certainly doesn't look good in his favour." said Hermione.

"Well... couldn't we just ask him?" Delilah asked.

"What a great visit that'd be. Hey Hagrid, you haven't been setting anything mad and hairy loose lately, have you?" John said sarcastically.

"If someone else gets attacked though, we have to ask him." said Harry.

"I still don't think it's him. Whether or not Riddle was just doing this because he was panicking doesn't matter. Hagrid didn't do this." Ron said, with a great deal of certainty.


	10. Hermione and Delilah's message

An increase in days without incident led more people's school lives to return to normal, and Harry, John, Ron, Delilah and Hermione were no exceptions; they concerned themselves with choosing third-year subjects.

"This could affect our entire futures." said Hermione.

"I wish I could drop potions." said Harry, glumly. They had to continue with all the subjects that they already took.

"And defence." said Ron.

"Defence against the Dark arts? But it's so important!" Hermione said incredulously.

"Not with the way Lockhart's been teaching us. I've learned one thing this year. Don't set pixies loose." said Ron.

"I can't argue with that logic, but I'm pretty sure Dumbledore's going to get someone new in next year. He knows exactly how terrible Lockhart is." said John.

"I wouldn't mind Dumbledore teaching it himself. He could tell us all about how exactly he beat Grindewald." said Harry.

"He has enough responsibilities as it is." said Delilah.

"I know. Can't help but dream though, can I?" Harry pointed out.

Hermione had unsurprisingly picked every single subject.

Delilah chose ancient runes, Arithmancy and Care of magical creatures, arguably the hardest subjects available, and John had chosen Care of magical creatures due to his not very publicly known soft spot for animals and Arithmancy, shying away from Divination which he thought to be a very vague and weak discipline. John preferred to deal with what could be seen, observed, tested and understood.

"Plus Professor Vector isn't bad looking." said John, smirking to an unimpressed Hermione, who simply replied by saying that she was twenty nine years old.

Dean's method looked quite appealing to Harry. He closed his eyes and jabbed subjects with his wand, and picked based on that.

However, he chose to go with the same subjects as Ron, Divination and Care of magical creatures, so that he had someone friendly to help him out if he was awful at them.

Later though, Harry and John's thoughts were occupied by thoughts of the impending match with Hufflepuff. They walked into their dormitory feeling that Gryffindor's chances at the cup were very good this year given the sheer dominance of John and the other chasers, combined with Harry's uncanny ability to beat other seekers.

Their moods were quickly put down when a panicked Neville came to them, and Ron who was accompanying them.

"Harry, John, Ron! I don't know who did it! You'd better come quick!" Neville said, frantically, leading them to the dorm.

The dorm was in an absolute mess. Every pocket of every robe was turned inside out, every trunk was open and every bed was undone.

"Someone's been looking for something. It had to be a Gryffindor too." Ron deduced.

Harry noticed that the thing that was missing was Riddle's diary. He said so in an undertone to Ron and John.

* * *

This instance was still on their minds the next day, despite the perfect Quidditch conditions. Ron, Delilah and Hermione accompanied them to the Quidditch pitch, which is when Harry and John both heard the voice again.

"The voice! It's back!" said Harry.

"I hear it too!" said John.

Hermione and Delilah looked at each other, suddenly very alarmed.

"Library!" Delilah said immediately.

"We've got to go, we've just understood something, we'll explain it after the match!" Hermione said, before the two of them ran off to the library.

"What?" John asked.

"That's what those two do. If in doubt, go to the library." said Ron.

Harry and John parted with Ron and got dressed for the match. Wood went through the gameplan as usual, but McGonagall was waiting for them at the entrance to the pitch.

"This match has been cancelled." she said, shortly.

"What? Why?" Angelina asked.

McGonagall hesitated and looked solemnly at the players.

"There has been another attack." she said.

"Harry, John, we'd better go and find Weasley. There's something you all should see." she said.

McGonagall, Harry and John did so, after which McGonagall led them to the hospital wing. Given that McGonagall had said that there'd been another attack, as soon as John realized they were headed to the hospital wing, his stomach gave a lurch. Hermione and Delilah were on their own. Most of the school was at the Quidditch pitches...

He stopped about thirty feet short of the hospital wing doors.

"Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked, worriedly looking at them.

"It's Hermione and Delilah. Isn't it?" he asked, his voice devoid of all emotion.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in shock, and then to their professor.

Uncharacteristically, McGonagall looked to the floor before answering him.

"Yes Mr. Potter. I'm afraid so." she said.

Harry and Ron looked at the hospital wing door, as if it were some unstoppable obstacle, but John, who looked more emotionless than any of them had ever seen him, walked briskly through the doors, to find both Hermione and Delilah looking pale and statue-like in parallel beds. Hermione appeared to have been holding something when she was petrified, whilst Delilah was probably looking at whatever Hermione was holding.

"They were found near the library along with this. Does it mean anything to you?" asked McGonagall, holding up a mirror which was presumable what Hermione was holding.

"No." said Harry, who appeared to be somewhat in shock.

"I will allow you a few minutes here to process this. You then need to come to the Gryffindor common room for some important announcemens." said McGonagall.

The three of them nodded and McGonagall left.

"I swear, whoever this heir is, I'm going to clobber their face until there isn't anything left to clobber." John vowed angrily.

"We have to talk to Hagrid. I know it's not him for certain now, he'd never attack Hermione or Delilah, but he might know something we don't." said Harry.

"Yeah, but we have to go to the common room for those announcements." said Ron, quietly, unable to take his eyes of Hermione or Delilah.

* * *

The announcements that evening were that all students had to be accompanied from class to class, and that from 6pm onwards, a strict curfew would take place every day unless and until the culprit was caught. Even prefects were not allowed after this curfew, and it appeared as if the staff didn't want to be out after the curfew either. Most members of staff looked frightened.

"So how are we getting to Hagird with this curfew on?" Harry asked.

"Your cloak of course!" Ron replied.

Sure enough, the three boys took James Potter's old cloak out once more, and headed out to Hagrid's hut. When Hagrid answered the knocks on his door, he was holding a crossbow.

"Holy crap Hagrid! What's that for?" John asked, taking the cloak off them.

"Oh nothin' I was jus' expectin'... Doesn't matter, come in, I just made some tea." said Hagrid. He looked very nervous.

"You heard about Hermione and Delilah then?" Harry asked.

"Oh I heard abou' tha' alrigh'. Nasty business, hope Professor Sprout can get them mandrakes sorted quickly." said Hagrid, his voice breaking.

Silence took the hut before John broke it.

"Hagrid, what do you know about the chamber? Did you open it fifty years ago?" he asked, bluntly. The look on John's face made it obvious that he was upset that he even had to ask.

Hagrid paused for a moment.

"Y'see the thing yeh have ter undersand abou' tha-" Hagrid started, before knocks came at the door.

"Under the cloak!" Hagrid said frantically, as the boys complied.

None other than Dumbledore walked in, alongside a shorter man with grey hair and a bowler hat.

"That's Cornelius Fudge! Minister for Magic!" Ron whispered.

John's stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch; the same kind that happened when he figured out that Delilah and Hermione had been attacked. Hagrid was likely being suspected by the ministry.

"Bad business Hagrid, very bad business. All these attacks, the ministry has to act." said Fudge.

"I never... you know I never Professor!" Hagrid said, desperately.

"I want it understood Cornelius. Hagrid has my complete confidence." Dumbledore said firmly.

"I'm sorry but Hagrid, your record is against you, and I must be seen doing something. If the culprit is caught, you will be released with a full apology." Fudge said.

John did not tolerate what he was hearing. Before Harry or Ron could stop him, he came out from under the cloak, making it appear as if he'd been hiding behind Hagrid's table.

"You're scapegoating him? You're afraid of what people might _feel_ so you're letting an innocent man take the blame?" John seethed.

Harry was tempted to just yell at John then and there... how reckless could he get?

"What are you doing here boy?" Fudge asked.

"Visiting my friend. You didn't answer my question." said John. Dumbledore's expression was difficult to understand. Was he impressed or exasperated?

"You must understand, if the ministry is seen doing nothing-" Fudge started.

"What kind of leader are you? You're letting people's feelings get in the way of what's right! Grow a spine and let Hagrid off, you know he didn't do it! You've got a supreme Mugwump and Chief warlock vouching for him!" said John, referring to some of Dumbledore's many titles.

"John, please, be calm. I'm afraid the minister's decision holds more merit here than our own." Dumbledore said.

"But professor-" John started, but stopped upon looking Dumbledore in the eye.

Harry noted to himself the the Minister for Magic himself couldn't keep John under control and yet a single look from Dumbledore was enough to do just that.

"So how many weeks of detention am I getting for this?" John asked in a very resigned voice.

"I will not punish you for this John, given the circumstances. I know you were just concerned for your friend. But if you break curfew again, I, or another member of staff will have to act. Now take a seat." said Dumbledore.

"Albus, are you sure we can let a boy listen to what we are about to discuss?" Fudge asked.

"John has faced Lord Voldemort twice." Dumbledore said, flatly, causing Harry and Ron to grin under the cloak.

"Yes-very well. Hagrid, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you." said Fudge.

"Take where? Not Azkaban prison!" Hagrid said, panicking.

Before Fudge could confirm Hagrid's destination, Lucius Malfoy walked in, without knocking. Hagrid's panic was completely forgotten.

"Get outta my house!" Hagrid growled upon seeing him.

"Believe me, I have no intention of being in this... you call this a house? No, I am here on business. You see Dumbledore, the governors and I feel that you've lost your touch somewhat. All these attacks you failed to stop have added up and we feel that you must step down. You'll find all twelve signatures." said Lucius Malfoy, presenting a document.

"Lucius, if Albus couldn't stop the attacks, then who would have been able to do so?" Fudge asked.

"That remains to be seen." said Malfoy, with a nasty grin on his face.

"You can' take Dumbledore away! Take him away an' the muggleborns won' stand a chance! Mark my words there'll be killings next!" Hagrid roared.

"Hagrid, calm yourself. If it is indeed the will of the governors, then I will step down. However, if those who remain are loyal to me, then I shall never be gone. Help at Hogwars will always be given to those who ask for it." said Dumbledore.

"And what tactics did you use to get those signatures Lucy? Bribery? Blackmail? Intimidation? All of the above?" John asked Malfoy mockingly.

Malfoy surveyed John with interest.

"I did say that I looked forward to further meetings Mr. Potter. But unfortunately for you, the agreement was universal with us governors." said Malfoy, sneering at John.

"You've really got to get better at lying if you're going to convince anyone." said John, standing up and looking Malfoy in the eye.

Malfoy looked surprised that John wasn't the least bit intimidated by him, but didn't dwell on it.

"I'm afraid the voice of a twelve year old doesn't hold much authority here." he said.

"I'm afraid the voice of a compulsive liar doesn't hold much authority anywhere." John retorted.

"While I commend your command of our language Potter, I'm afraid you're rather mistaken here. Whatever the case, all signatures are present." said Malfoy.

"John, I must step aside if it is the governors' wish. Just remember what I said." said Dumbledore.

"Enough of that. Come Hagrid, we must leave." said Fudge, as the adults began to leave Hagrid's hut.

"John, I expect you to return to your dormitory." Dumbledore said sternly.

"Yeah, I'll just feed Fang and head out." John lied.

"An' if anyone were looking for some stuff, they'd have ter follow the spiders." Hagrid told the minister.

Before long, Harry, Ron and John were the only ones left in the hut.

When they lifted the cloak off and put it back into Ron's rucksack, both Harry and Ron's mouths were agape.

"I can't believe you. I don't know whether to hit you or buy you a snack." said Harry.

"Yeah, you made the bloody minister for Magic look like a tool, and almost got Lucius Malfoy backing down!" said Ron.

"Yeah, but either of you could easily have done that. Plus, it was stupid of me to leave the cloak. You two were the smart ones. I knew when I left the cloak I had to go all in." said John.

"Yeah, I suppose. But at least we have another lead." said Harry, referring to the spiders.

"Yeah, this one I'm not too pleased about but it is what it is." said Ron, grumpily.

"Next time we're free and see spiders heading somewhere, we know what to do." said John.

* * *

The time to follow the spiders came the next evening, after the last lesson of the day. A dozen spiders could be seen scurrying away from the great hall, apparently towards Hagrid's hut. Though they didn't stop at Hagrid's hut. They were heading to the forest.

"Fucking perfect." said Ron. As an arachnophobe, it was bad enough to be following spiders, but into the forbidden forest, a place where it was confirmed that feral werewolves lived? That was a whole new level of fear being piled on to him.

Ron kept reminding himself that it was for Delilah and Hermione and followed Harry and John in, neither of whom looked too pleased about the situation themselves.

Unfortunately, they lost track of the spiders somewhere deep in the forest.

"Should we head back and try again later?" John asked, looking at Ron.

Ron wasn't looking at John. He was looking at a spot above him, his face showing nothing but fear. John looked up.

"Woah!"

With that, John leapt to the side, but to no avail. A spider, with the body at least the size of a bull and legs the length of a python seized him. Two more similarly sized spiders did the same to Ron and Harry. With pincers the size of John's forearms, the boys didn't dare struggle.

None of the boys knew where the spiders were carrying them. These weren't just large spiders though. They seemed to be capable of critical thought...

The spiders dropped them off in a clearing, and they would soon find out why. Another spider stepped out from behind the roots of an enormous old tree. This spider was different. It was enormous. The size of an elephant. Pincers the size of swords. Each of its eight eyes were white. It was blind.

Before they could come to terms with what they were seeing, the spiders which took them began to speak. In English. Albeit with a lot of clicks in between syllables.

"Aragog, we found these children wandering near our lair." said one of them.

Aragog responded, with a voice which sounded eerily human, though with the same clicks in between.

"Kill them. I was sleeping." said Aragog.

"I know you! You know Hagrid!" Harry said quickly.

"Hagrid? What do you know of him?" Aragog questioned.

"We're his friends! He's in trouble!" said John.

"Trouble? What happened?" Aragog asked. He sounded... concerned?

"They're taking him to prison for opening the chamber of secrets and attacking people!" said John.

"That'a a lie! Hagrid never opened the chamber!" Aragog said angrily.

"Then you aren't the so called monster then." said Harry.

"No. The monster was born in the castle. I came to Hagrid from a distant land in a traveller's pocket." Aragog explained.

"Then what is the monster?" John asked.

"We do not speak of it! It is a creature we spiders fear above all else!" said Aragog.

Not wanting to press the matter of the monster itself, Harry tried another line of questioning. Ron was still almost catatonic with fear.

"OK, but did you ever find out who opened it last time? Do you know who could be opening it now?" he asked.

"No. I never saw any of the castle apart from the places Hagrid kept me. I never met another person when Hagrid was at Hogwarts." said Aragog.

John and Harry looked at each other.

"Alright... thanks. We'll just... go." said John.

"Go? I think not. My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command, but fresh meat, wondering so willingly into our midst? How could I refuse?" Aragog asked, before backing down into the area where he slept.

"Fuck! Any spells coming to mind?" John asked, as some smaller spiders (still the size of dogs) began to converge on them.

"No... This can't be it though! Harry said desperately, as John punched and kicked the first two spiders to pounce on him, before pulling another off Ron's back. Ron was still rooted to the spot in fear. This was likely worse than anything other arachnophobes had ever experienced.

"Ron, it's OK, we're going to get out of here! Somehow..." said John.

As if answering John directly, two beams of light shone through into the lair, and a car drove straight through the pack of spiders towards the boys. It was Mr. Weasley's car. The forest had turned it wild.

"It's been roaming here all this time?" Ron asked, recovering slightly.

"Looks that way. Get in!" said Harry, looking behind him to see some of the larger spiders preparing for an attack.

The three of them frantically ran into the car, before Ron put it into its flying gear, allowing a narrow escape.

"Follow the spiders... If Azkaban doesn't kill Hagrid I will!" Ron said, furiously.

"He probably didn't think those spiders would try to kill us." said Harry.

"That's his problem! He doesn't realise how dangerous some creatures are. What was the point of sending us in there? What did we learn? That Hagrid was innocent? We knew that anyway!" Ron retorted.

"We know that whatever this creature is, it terrifies spiders, even those giant ones in the forest. The question is, what frightens something like that? It can't be dragons, because dragons don't petrify people, they just roast them. Can't be a manticore either, because if it was, there wouldn't be anything left of the victims." said John.

This mystery was getting harder and harder to solve. They'd hit dead end after dead end, and with Hermione and Delilah petrified, the boys felt more useless than ever.

"When Hermione and Delilah recover we've really got to show them how much we need them." said Ron, sadly the next morning while they visited them.

While Ron and John were looking at Hermione and Delilah's frozen faces, Harry noticed something in Hermione's hand. It was a scrunched up piece of paper.

"Guys, close the curtains." said Harry, taking out the paper.

Harry scanned through what turned out to be a torn page from a library book.

"This is it. This is the answer. To everything. Hermione and Delilah figured it out after all!" said Harry.

The boys read the page, as it explained that the general biology of the basilisk, undoubtedly the creature responsible for the attacks based upon the book's description. Hermione also answered how the basilisk had been getting around the school so easily.

Pipes.

This also explained how Harry and John could hear it. They were hearing it travelling the pipes through the walls.

Also, by the description, the basilisk could very well be the most dangerous animal in the world It could kill by merely looking at someone, let alone its dagger-sized fangs filled with venom capable of killing a man within minutes. Venom with no known cure, bar phoenix tears, and phoenix tears were hardly in plentiful supply.

"Now we have to figure out where the chamber is." said Ron.

Harry was the one to answer that.

"I've been thinking about that for a while. I remember Dippet telling Riddle that the girl was found in a bathroom. What if she's still there?" Harry asked.

"Moaning Myrtle! The chamber's in the girls' bathroom!" Ron said.

"We have to tell the staff. Now." said John.

Before they could set off, McGonagall's voice could be heard over the school's speaker system.

"All students will proceed to their dormitories and common rooms immediately. All staff members converge in the staff room."

"I guess we know where we're headed. Still got the cloak?" John asked.

"You know it." said Harry, pulling the cloak out from his bag. The three of them snuck in behind Professor Sprout, headed into a wardrobe, and listened in to the staff's conversation.

"I'm afraid until further notice, this is the end of Hogwarts. A student has been taken by the monster, into the chamber itself. We must inform the students that the Hogwarts express will take the students back to London the day after tomorrow, and send owls to the parents." said McGonagall, mournfully.

"Who is it that's been taken Minverva?" asked Professor Sprout.

"Ginny Weasley." McGonagall replied.

Ron slumped to the floor of the wardrobe.

Just then, to make matter worse, Lockhart walked in.

"So sorry, dozed off. What have I missed?" he asked.

"Your moment has come Gilderoy. A girl has been snatched by the monster. It seems that someone with your skills is the only one who may be able to save her." said Snape, looking at Lockhart nastily.

"My... m-moment?" Lockhart asked.

"Yes, haven't you been saying that the situation was bungled in not giving you free reign from the start? Weren't you saying that you knew all along where the chamber's entrance was?" McGonagall asked.

"W-well..." Lockhart tried.

"That appears to be settled. Your skills of course are legendary Gilderoy. I would wish you good luck, but it has always been apparent that you have no need for luck." said Snape.

Harry would have been happy to see Snape making Lockhart squirm if it were not for Ginny being held captive by a basilisk.

"Very well. I'll just be in my office... getting ready." said Lockhart, feigning bravery.

"Now that he's dealt with, we need to start sending owls and contacting the ministry and tell them what we know." said McGonagall, before the staff members left, one by one.

When the room was empty, it was safe to speak again.

"Ron..." John started.

"I'm going down there. I'm going into the chamber. You don't have to follow me." Ron said, his voice filled with fury and determination.

"We're both behind you. Lockhart might be useless but since he's trying to get into the chamber, we should tell him what we know. Bring him along too, for what he's worth." said Harry.

"Way ahead of you." said John, who was already at the exit to the staff room, heading for Lockhart's office.


	11. The Chamber of Secrets

Harry, John and Ron may not have set much store by the rules, but this was no ordinary time. The three of them sprinted towards Lockhart's office and unapologetically barged into it.

"Professor! We have some stuff to tell you right now!" Ron said, urgently.

However, upon surveying the office, Ron noticed that Lockhart's bags and trunks were largely packed, with the remnants of his belongings scattered around his office.

"Are you going somewhere?" Harry asked.

"Err... yes! Urgent call. Unavoidable, must leave-" Lockhart said.

"What about my sister?!" Ron asked incredulously.

"As for that most unfortunate development, no-one regrets more than I-" Lockhart tried.

"You're the defence against the Dark arts teacher! You can't leave now!" said John.

"Well I must say, when I took the job, there was nothing in the description about-" Lockhart started.

"What about your books? All the stuff you did in them?" Harry asked.

"Books can be misleading." Lockhart said mysteriously.

"You're the one who wrote them." said Ron shrewdly.

"Use your common sense! My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things! The witch who got rid of the Bandon Banshee? She had a harelip, she'd look awful on the front page of a book! The same goes for the Armenian warlock who got rid of the werewolves! Terrible dress sense!" Lockhart explained.

"I knew it! You're a fraud. Just taking credit for stuff other people have done!" John said, victoriously.

"Do you think it came without work? The road to fame is filled with a grind! If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's memory charms. I used such charms on the wizards and witches who did those things in my books, else they'd have all gone blabbing. I'd never have sold another book." said Lockhart, who was slowly turning his back on the boys. He didn't notice as all three of them drew their wands.

Lockhart drew his own wand and turned around, only to see three more pointed at him.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.

Lockhart's wand flew into the air, and Ron caught it, before throwing it out of the open window.

"Shouldn't have let Snape show that one to us." John snarled.

"What do you want me to do though? I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is!" said Lockhart.

"You're in luck." said Harry.

"We do, and we know what's inside it." said Ron.

The three of them marched Lockhart at wand-point to Myrtle's bathroom. They took some vindictive pleasure in watching him shake as he walked.

Myrtle spotted them immediately upon their arrival at the bathroom.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want?" she asked.

"We wanted to ask you how you... died." John asked, hoping not to set her off on one of her all too common tirades. To his surprise, her mood changed drastically, for the better.

"Oh, it was dreadful!" she said, with relish.

"I was in this bathroom, crying because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses, I was sitting on this U-bend, before I heard someone saying something. Some sort of different language, but I didn't understand any of it. And before I knew it, I was floating up, above my body, and I knew I'd been murdered!" said Myrtle, happily.

"You died... just like that? Did you see anything?" Ron asked.

"I only remember seeing a massive pair of yellow eyes over there. By that sink. I was determined to haunt Olive from then on. Oh she was sorry she ever teased me about my glasses!" said Myrtle.

"Is there anything else you know?" John asked, eagerly.

"Not much. Only that a boy was expelled for it. A really big boy." said Myrtle.

"Hagrid. He was innocent, why didn't you tell anyone what actually happened?" Harry asked.

"No one ever asked me." said Myrtle.

"Wait... what? They were looking for the culprit more than ever after your death and they didn't bother to ask the ghost of the victim who was right there all along? What kind of dipshits were in charge of the investigation?" John asked.

"I never knew." said Myrtle.

Ron, however, took to examining the sink Myrtle had pointed at.

"That tap's never worked." said Myrtle.

Ron examined the tap very closely, and saw a small snake carved into the side.

"This has to be it." said Ron.

"You're sure?" John asked.

"Positive. Look, there's a snake carved into here, and like Myrtle said, this tap's never worked." said Ron.

"Alright, how do you suppose we're getting in?" said Harry.

"Well we've found the entrance, but it seems we can't get in, I say we go, shall we?" Lockhart asked.

Upon the three glares from the boys he received, he promptly shut his mouth.

"I think you guys have to say something in parseltongue." said Ron.

"Open up." said Harry immediately.

"English." said Ron.

"Well whenever we speak parseltongue, we're face to face with a snake, maybe we've got to really pretend there's a snake in front of us." said John, before he made his own effort. He also asked the sink to open up, but strangled, hissing sounds came out of his mouth.

It had worked - the sink he was looking at slowly lowered itself into the ground, along with a few of the other sinks adjacent to it leaving a hole with a slide which presumably led down into the fabled Chamber of secrets.

"Well. Excellent work John. There's... no need for me to _stay!"_ said Lockhart, trying to make a run for it, before John tackled him from behind.

"You're going down there first." said Ron.

Lockhart's face went completely white.

"V-very well." he said.

Lockhart stood at the entrance to the slide. He was taking his sweet time. Ron was growing impatient - his sister was down there. So naturally, he shoved Lockhart straight down the hole.

Lockhart's screaming voice carried down for at least a hundred feet below the surface, before they heard a loud crunch.

"It's really quite filthy down here." they heard him say.

"OK, any sign of movement that isn't human and we shut our eyes immediately." said Harry.

Ron and John nodded, before Ron jumped down himself, followed by Harry and John.

They landed with similar sounding crunching noises, and stood up, wands pointed at Lockhart immediately.

John looked down to see why they made the crunching noises - none of them had broken any bones. Or at least none of their own bones...

On the floor were thousands of different bones from a range of animals. Thankfully, none of them looked human, but John could recognize squirrels, fish, birds and similar animals native to Britain.

"Nice." he said, sarcastically.

"Let's move." said Ron.

The four of them cautiously walked on, searching for any clues as to where Ginny may have been. After rounding the second corner in the confusing, winding tunnel clearly built for the monstrous serpent, they found a startling sight. The first clue as to just how big the basilisk was. A shed snake's skin. It was fifty feet long, and couldn't have been shed more than a week ago.

John knelt down and took a closer look, as did Ron.

"If this is anything to go by then the basilisk is longer than a fucking T-rex. Its fangs must be a foot long. If we hear anything that's not human, find a corner to hide in, shut your eyes and don't make a sound. Looking us in the eye isn't the only way this thing could kill us." said John, looking intently at the four and a half foot long head.

Harry gulped. He hoped that facing this wasn't necessary to get Ginny out of here.

He was so transfixed by the snakeskin that he didn't notice Lockhart sneak behind him and pinch his wand. He, Ron and John realized all too late.

"The adventure ends here boys! But don't fret! The world will know our story. How I was too late to save the girl. How you three tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body. So, you first Harry. Say goodbye to your memories." said Lockhart, sinisterly.

"Obliviate!" Lockhart yelled, but just in the nick of time, John ran in the way.

"Protego!" John yelled, and Lockhart's charm backfired directly onto him, and he was thrown backwards and knocked unconscious.

"John I... thanks." said Harry.

"Where did you learn that spell?" Ron asked, as Harry walked over to Lockhart's unconscious body and took back his wand.

"Hermione and Delilah taught me when we were hanging out the day after the dueling club turned out to be a farce." said John, sadly.

Even now, so long after Hermione and Delilah were petrified, they were still saving the boys' collective skins.

"It's a shield charm. Blocks most low to mid-level curses and stuff. I had no idea if it worked on memory charms. Good thing it does." said John casting a dirty look at Lockhart, who just then, woke up.

"Ughh. Hello." he said, looking at John, blankly.

"Who are you?" he asked.

John looked to Harry and Ron, then back to Lockhart.

"John Potter." said John.

"Really? And who-who am I?" Lockhart asked.

"Well... he's not going to be any use any more." said Harry.

"It's an odd sort of place isn't it? Do you live here?" Lockhart asked Ron.

"No." said Ron, before grabbing a rock and using it to knock Lockhart out again.

"Honestly, we can't save Ginny dragging around that idiot. We'll have to leave him. Help me shift some rock in front of him so the basilisk doesn't see him and eat him." said Harry, before the three boys did just that.

They then continued to follow the winding tunnels, feeling as if they'd been going in circles for almost half an hour, before finally coming to an enormous circular door, with a pattern carved in with six snakes.

John made the same strangled, hissing sound that he did to open the chamber, and a seventh snake came out from behind one of the mechanisms, and the door slowly, ominously opened.

The boys stepped through to find an expansive, almost ritualistically built final chamber, with stone snake heads adorning the sides, leading towards an enormous, bearded stone face at the end.

In front of the face was:

"Ginny!"

Ron sprinted straight forwards towards his sister, Harry and John following him.

Ginny was looking very pale, lying there motionless. Ron tried desperately to wake her, shaking her and calling her name. Riddle's diary was at her side.

"She won't wake." came a voice only familiar to Harry. It was... Tom Riddle?

"Tom? Tom Riddle?" Harry asked.

"She's not..." Ron started, unable to bear the thought of his sister dying.

"She's alive. But only just." said Riddle.

"You've got to help us get her out of here!" John said.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." said Riddle.

"Are you a ghost or something?" Harry asked.

"A memory. Preserved in a diary for fifty years." Riddle answered.

"Listen, we've got to go, we've got to save her!" Ron said.

"I wouldn't allow that either. You see as Ginny grows weaker... I grow stronger." said Riddle.

"Wait a minute..." John said.

"Yes. Ginny opened the Chamber of secrets. She strangled the school roosters. She wrote the messages on the wall and set the basilisk on the mudbloods and Filch's cat!" said Riddle.

"Ginny wouldn't do that! She wouldn't hurt a fly!" Ron said, angrily and in disbelief.

"I did tell her to. You'll find I can be very persuasive. When I was in the diary, I spent so much time listening to the ramblings of a simpering girl! Dear Tom, I'm so nervous, Dear Tom, I wish making friends was as easy for me as it was for Ron, Dear Tom, you're the only one who understands!" Riddle said, mockingly.

"You're sick... you manipulated Ginny into doing all of this?" Ron asked, furiously.

"Well she didn't really know what she was doing. She was... shall I say in something of a trance?" Riddle said, mockingly.

"Bastard!" Ron yelled, running at Riddle and swinging at him, only to find himself going straight through him.

"I told you. I'm only a memory." said Riddle.

"What about the basilisk?" John asked.

"It won't come until it's called." said Riddle.

"Well none of it matters. The mandrake draught will soon be ready. Everyone who was petrified will soon be alright again." said Harry.

"Well it's a good thing that attacking mudbloods is no longer my primary. goal. In fact, my new target was you." said Riddle. Harry looked puzzled.

"You're an orphan. Like me. You can speak parseltongue. Like me. I know for a fact that the sorting hat wanted to place you in my old house, Slytherin. We even look something alike. With you as my target, I had to gain your trust. So I showed you my capture of that brainless oaf Hagrid!" said Riddle.

"Hagrid's my friend and you framed him! You almost destroyed his life! Why are you even so interested in me?" Harry asked.

"How is it that a baby with no extraordinary magical powers could survive an attack from the greatest wizard of all time? How did he escape with nothing but a _scar?_ While Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?" Riddle asked, furiously.

"Why do you care? He was way after your time!" Ron replied.

"Voldemort... is my past, present and future." said Riddle.

With that, Riddle, in flaming letters, wrote out his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle in the air. With a wave of his hand, he re-arranged them. They read something different. Something which explained everything.

 _I am Lord Voldemort_

"You... You're the heir of Slytherin. Voldemort?" John asked.

"I was never going to keep the name of my filthy muggle father! No. I fashioned myself a new name. A name I knew that wizards the world over would fear when I, Lord Voldemort became the most powerful sorcerer in the world!" Voldemort said in a rather megalomaniacal way.

"I have bad news for you. Albus Dumbledore is the greatest sorcerer in the world." John said in a dangerously low voice.

"Dumbledore? Ha! He's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me! Where is he now? Who will stop me?" Voldemort asked.

"He'll never be gone as long as those who remain are loyal to him!" John retorted defiantly, echoing what Dumbledore told him in Hagrid's hut.

Before any of them could share any more angry words, the cawing of a bird filled the room.

"Dumbledore's phoenix... Fawkes!" said Harry.

Fawkes flew overhead, and dropped the boys... the sorting hat?

"So this is all Dumbledore sends his great protectors... the vanguard of Albus Dumbledore receive a songbird... and an old hat." Voldemort said mockingly.

Harry was confused... what was he supposed to do with the hat?

"Enough of this foreplay! Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, heir to Salazaar Slytherin, against Dumbledore's grunts!" said Voldemort, before he did the one thing Ron was dreading the most. He spoke in parseltongue. Harry and John, being parselmouths themselves, didn't realize.

"Guys! He's calling the basilisk!" Ron said, and without another word, the three of them ran.

"Split up!" said John.

They could hear Riddle telling the basilisk to attack, followed by the sound of scales sliding across the wet stony floor. Judging by what they were hearing, the basilisk could certainly move fast.

Harry was starting to think Voldemort was right. He had a basilisk and Dumbledore had sent... the sorting hat.

As he, Ron and John ran into three separate directions, Harry felt his stomach drop when he slipped on the wet floor and fell. Certain that this was the end for him, he heard he cawing of Fawkes once more.

He looked up at the wall to see the shadows of Fawkes and the enormous basilisk. Fawkes was attacking the basilisk's head, and it was clearly in pain.

"No! The bird may have blinded the basilisk! But she can still hear you! She can still smell you!" Voldemort yelled.

The three boys all heard that and immediately whipped their heads around to look at the basilisk for the first time. It was, as John said, longer than a T-rex, with foot long fangs. It was as thick as a tree-trunk, covered in hard-looking green and brown scales, spines along its dorsal surface and a large, spiny crest on top of its head.

"Keep moving! OI! I'm here!" John yelled.

"No..." Harry said, weakly.

John was using himself as bait!

"Harry!" said Ron, pointing at the sorting hat. A sword now lay inside it. But... how?

Harry didn't have time to dwell. A basilisk was chasing his brother. He and sprinted towards the hat as fast as he could, slid in towards it and picked up the sword.

"Wish there was more than one!" said Ron.

"You use it! Your arms are longer than mine!" said Harry, handing the sword to Ron.

As he did so, a blood curdling scream was heard, echoing throughout the hall. Harry and Ron looked towards it's point of origin and upon seeing what the source was, Harry dropped to his knees. The basilisk had seized John in its enormous jaws, each and every one of its fangs piercing his torso. John was dead.

"NO!" Ron yelled.

Before the basilisk devoured John, it heard Ron, and as if completely capable of understanding him, turned its head towards Ron and dropped John's now blood-soaked corpse.

Harry, shaking with rage, got to his feet, before immediately realizing that no matter how angry he was, he and Ron were still hopelessly outgunned.

"The basilisk has already claimed your brother Potter! How long before you and your friend are next? Give up and I will tell her to make your deaths painless! You won't even have to see her swallow your brother whole!" Voldemort taunted.

Ron and Harry ignored him, as the basilisk sped towards where they stood, near the stone face.

"Climb!" Ron yelled. Harry did exactly that, and before they knew it, they were atop the stone face. The basilisk reared up, and the two boys were looking the basilisk in her bloodsoaked, punctured eyes.

The basilisk kept wildly striking at where it thought Ron and Harry were, missing by inches on more than one occasion.

"We need it to hit the eye!" said Ron.

Harry was not thinking clearly, the image of John in the basilisk's jaws still fresh in his mind, and so did exactly as Ron said.

Harry climbed down, standing on the eye of the statue. On cue, the basilisk struck, and Harry dodged again, jumping from the statue to the floor, near Ginny's rapidly weakening body.

Harry then knew exactly why Ron needed the basilisk to strike the statue's eye. It was stuck. Ron seized the opportunity, and leaped off the top of the statue, landing under the basilisk's head, sword in hand. Without a moment's hesitation, he plunged the sword through into the roof of the basilisk's gigantic mouth, into its brain, killing it instantly.

However, the basilisk's fang had painfully pierced Ron's forearm when he stabbed it.

Slytherin's legendary serpent was no more, and its body flopped uselessly to the floor.

"Well done. But no matter. Your brother is dead. And now the basilisk's fang has pierced your arm. The venom should already be taking effect. I'd wager you have mere minutes left to live. And you, Potter, will be alone and at my mercy, your friends' and brother's corpses around you as I, Lord Voldemort return. Very much alive!" said Voldemort.

Harry was knelt at John's corpse. He couldn't speak, nor properly process what Voldemort was saying. All he could think about was the fact that his brother was dead.

But Ron, who had removed the fang from his arm, had something of a wild idea. If he was dying, then he could take Voldemort with him. Voldemort said that he was just a memory, preserved in the diary. He could destroy the diary. With no semblance of hesitation, he slammed the bloody fang into the diary.

He looked up to see a bright, energy-filled hole appearing in Voldemort's chest.

"NO! You can't-" Voldemort screamed through his pain.

Ron took this as his cue to stab the diary again. This time, Riddle's body burst into some form of magical energy, and was no more.

Ginny immediately woke up.

"Ron! I swear! Riddle made me-" she said, before hearing someone sobbing. She looked over at Harry, mere feet away, kneeling at John's corpse. He didn't care that Voldemort had been stopped again.

"No... He can't be-" Ginny said, her eyes filling up with tears.

"It's not your fault Ginny." said Ron. Ron's vision was now blurring, and he was beginning to feel extremely dizzy. Riddle was right about the venom.

"Listen, just follow the tunnel, go with Harry. You'll find Professor Lockhart along the way, and you'll be able to get back to Hogwarts.

"W-what about you?" Ginny asked tearfully.

"I wasn't quick enough." said Ron, showing the pierce in his arm.

"No! You can't mean it!" Ginny said, now distraught.

"It's alright Ginny. We came to save you. We did it. None of this is your fault." said Ron.

Before Ginny could reply, Fawkes returned.

By this time, Harry had recovered enough to think coherently.

"We couldn't have done it without you Fawkes." he said.

Fawkes looked at Ron's arm and began to shed tears. Before their eyes, Ron's wound sealed itself up, and Ron stopped feeling the effects of venom.

It was bittersweet though. Fawkes couldn't cure John. Nothing could.

* * *

Once Fawkes had carried them all out of the Chamber, they followed him to Dumbledore's old office.

Inside it was Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

They were overjoyed to see Ginny.

"You saved her! How did you do it?" Mrs. Weasley said, alongside a beaming Mr. Weasley, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall.

Ginny's lip began to quiver and tears filled her eyes again. The adults looked behind them and figured out why.

"The basilisk. It..." Ron started, but he was unable to finish the sentence. He himself was ready to cry.

The adults were horrified.

"He used himself as bait." said Harry. Upon hearing this, Mrs. Weasley burst into tears and buried her face into Mr. Weasley's chest. McGonagall almost looked ready to cry herself.

"He will be remembered. We will re-open the school and do right by him." said Dumbledore, solemnly.

John's body was brought to the hospital wing, where a stricken Madam Pomfrey took to examining him once she got over her shock.

Everyone who was in the office came to the hospital wing.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley expressed their gratitude to Ron and Harry, but couldn't bring themselves to say anything about John. Someone who had only known their son for two years, and barely known their daughter at all, sacrificing his life for her? It was unheard of, and they didn't know how to repay the debt.

* * *

By this time, the mandrake draught had already been used, and those who had been petrified had been restored. Hermione and Delilah returned to the hospital wing to see Mr and Mrs. Weasley, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, Harry Ron and Ginny crowded around a bed.

"What's happened?" Hermione asked, worried.

"Miss Granger, please-" said McGonagall, but it was too late. Both Hermione and Delilah had seen John's body.

The hospital wing's door was closed and locked to prevent anyone else from entering.

"H-how did it happen?" Delilah asked, once she had stopped weeping.

"John used himself as bait. There was a sword appearing in the sorting hat and he gave us time to grab it." Ron said, sadly.

"Of course he would." said Hermione, a mixture of fondness and sadness in her voice.

"The school will be re-opened, but the students must be informed of what happened to John." said Dumbledore.

"Tomorrow Albus. For now, we must make arrangements for a proper burial." said McGonagall, looking sadly at the student she would never have admitted to being her favourite.


	12. Reunions

John opened his eyes, expecting to see the Chamber of Secrets, and yet found himself somewhere completely different. Everything was a blinding white colour in comparison to the grimy, dark chamber. For some reason he could see two sets of train tracks, and he himself was stood near a bench. He heard something groaning underneath it. Looking down, he was in for a shock.

He saw what looked like an underdeveloped human, curled up into a fetal position. It had two slits for nostrils as opposed to a nose, and it looked to be in great pain. He pitied it greatly, but had no idea how to help.

Before he could start thinking about helping, he heard footsteps coming from behind him.

He looked behind him to see a handsome, tall man with scruffy black hair, glasses and hazel eyes, and a beautiful woman with bright red hair and striking green eyes. Both of them were smiling sadly at him.

"Mum... dad!" John exclaimed, running to his parents and hugging them both hard.

"John, I can't even begin to tell you how proud we are of the man you're growing into." said James, when they let go of each other.

"But I'm here... the basilisk killed me. I'm dead." said John, causing Lily to wince.

"We were watching. We've always been watching over you, and we know what happened. We're here to help you make a choice. Whether you go back, or move on." said Lily.

"I'll make that choice, but can't we just talk for a bit? You're my parents." John said, sadly.

Lily's eyes began to water.

"Of course you can!" she said, hugging her son once more.

"You and Harry are everything we'd hoped you'd be and more. I don't know how you managed it, Lily's sister and her husband are not doing a good job." said James, angrily.

"Absolutely. And you've made the best friends we'd have hoped you could make. We were worried about how you'd get on without us, but we daresay you've done a better job raising yourselves than we would have done raising you." said Lily.

"I don't know. Given what I've heard about you both, I wouldn't say that." said John.

"We weren't perfect you know." said James, quietly.

"No, we weren't. Of course we grew up and became better people, but you and Harry are better than we were at your age. By far." said Lily.

John smiled with pride at his parents' assessment of him, before frowning.

"But I died. None of it matters for me." said John.

Lily had to choke back tears this time. Listening to her son describing how he, at only twelve years old was brutally killed by a fifty foot basilisk was almost impossible to hear. How was it fair for a child, and one so good-hearted to suffer like that? The same went for Harry. Neither of them deserved it.

James, however kept his cool.

"Ah. You see that's where things get a bit complicated. For you that is, This won't really affect anyone else. That thing under the bench?" James said.

"Yeah?" said John.

"That's part of Voldemort's soul." he said, bluntly.

"Wait... part of Vol... what?" John asked.

"Killing rips the soul apart. Voldemort had killed countless people before your father and I, but when Voldemort's curse rebounded off Harry, we think that a fragment of Voldemort's soul latched on to you. And that is what you see under the bench. A part of Voldemort sent here to die." said Lily, having recovered.

"OK... but what's that got to do with me going back or moving on?" John asked.

"You are unlike anyone before you. Voldemort in essence, killed a part of his own soul when he used the basilisk on you, and so Voldemort's soul fragment is gone no matter what. On the other hand, You have the choice to come back, into your own body. Your choice is to move on, with us, or go back." said James, giving John the ultimatum of a lifetime. Or two.

John was to choose to either be with his parents once more, or return to his life which hadn't even started properly.

"I'm going back." said John.

"I thought you would." said Lily, a sad smile on her face.

"The selfish part of me wanted you to come with us, but to tell the truth, you made the better decision. The nobler decision. Mind you we wouldn't have begrudged you if you wanted to stay with us." said James.

"Don't forget us." Lily said, sadly.

"Never." said John. For the first time he could remember, John shed tears, before embracing his parents. One last time.

* * *

John woke up again, still expecting to be in the chamber of secrets. But he still wasn't there. In fact, he could hear familiar voices weeping, and he felt himself in a warm, soft bed.

He opened his eyes, and immediately, the weeping stopped, and he saw the ten faces of Madam Pomfrey, Ron, Harry, Dumbledore, Ginny, Hermione, Delilah, McGonagall, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looking down at him in shock.

"You didn't think I'd die a virgin, did you?"

Everyone continued staring at him in shock.

"Well don't all start cheering at once." John said sarcastically, sitting up.

"But you- you were dead. For an hour. How..." Harry said.

"Err... long story. And I don't think it's my place to tell you all what the hell happened. Long story short though, I'm alive. This won't happen again though. If I die again, I die." said John.

Without any further words, Hermione and Delilah pounched onto the bed, ignoring that there were professors present, and hugged John.

"There's the welcome back I was looking for." said John, hugging them back.

"We will allow you some time to gather yourselves. Harry, Ron, John, I would like to speak with you at eleven o'clock sharp. Arthur, Molly, Minverva, if you would come with me?" Dumbledore said.

With that, the adults left.

Delilah got off John and stood by his bed again, but Hermione was now in tears again.

"Please don't-don't ever scare us like that again!" she said tearfully.

"Good news. I don't plan on running into any more basilisks." said John, jokingly.

"I'm serious! None of us can bear the thought of losing you! For goodness sake, we're not even fourteen and we're talking about you not getting yourself killed!" said Hermione, more visibly upset than anyone had ever seen her.

"Woah, Hermione, calm down, I promise I'll do whatever I can to not put myself in a situation like that again, OK?" John said.

"Alright. The same goes for you two!" said Hermione to Ron and Harry.

"Cross my heart and hope to not die." said Harry.

"I don't know how to thank you properly. You died for me. All three of you were ready to die for me." said Ginny, timidly.

"You don't have to thank us. We wanted to do it. You were being manipulated and controlled by Lord fucking Voldemort, you didn't deserve any of what happened to you this year." said John.

"And I'm your brother. What sort of lousy brother would I be if I wasn't OK with doing that?" Ron asked.

"And you solved it! The three of you solved it!" said Delilah, happily.

"No, _you two_ solved it. We were just the muscle." John laughed, causing Hermione and Delilah to laugh along with him.

Ginny was not looking as happy as the others though.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Harry asked.

"I'll probably be expelled. After everything I did-" she started.

"No you're not. You weren't acting of your own free will. None of this is your fault, like I said back down in the chamber." Ron said, firmly.

"None of you are angry with me? John?" Ginny asked miserably.

John's heart nearly broke upon seeing the look on Ginny's face.

"No way. Remember, the guy who did that to you is the same guy who murdered my parents. I'll never blame you. Even if I stayed dead, I'd not have blamed you." said John.

"Enough of that for now. You can all wait outside. John, I shall need to examine your body to see if any of the injuries that killed you will have any lasting effects." said Madam Pomfrey, stern as ever.

Hermione, Delilah, Harry, Ron and Ginny left Madam Pomfrey to her devices.

"Do you think John'll tell us what happened after he died?" asked Ron.

"I don't think so. I certainly hope none of you want to ask him. I'd imagine dying and coming back to life is stressful enough." said Hermione, sternly.

"No, you don't have to worry about that." said Harry.

"Good news is that the first thing he did when he woke up was make a sex joke. He seems normal at the very least." said Delilah.

"Yes, but I think we'll have to keep an eye on him. I don't know how dying and coming back to life changes someone obviously." said Hermione.

"That's because it's never been put in a textbook." Ron teased.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Come off it Ron, you shouldn't make light of this. I'm worried about him." said Hermione.

"I get it, but I'll worry about him if he shows signs that mean we _need_ to worry about him, but so far, he seems OK." said Ron.

"Yeah, assume that he's healthy unless and until he shows signs of something going wrong." said Harry.

"I know he said he's not angry with me, but is he just trying to spare my feelings?" Ginny asked with concern.

"No. If John's angry, he lets you know about it. Whatever the case, he controls his temper really well, he doesn't get angry all that often. Not unless some massive injustice happens." said Hermione.

"Yeah, what happened in Hagrid's hut pretty much showed that to the letter." said Ron.

"What happened in Hagrid's hut?" Delilah asked.

"You remember how Hagrid was a suspect? We went and visited him with my dad's old cloak to talk about it, but Dumbledore and Fudge showed up, so we hid under the cloak. When Fudge explained how he was scapegoating Hagrid, John just sort of burst out of the cloak and made Fudge look like a tool." said Harry, fondly.

"The Minister for Magic? John made the Minister for Magic look like a tool?" Ginny asked, her eyes wide open with surprise.

"Yeah, it was bloody brilliant. Mind you as it turns out, the Minister is really a tool. I reckon any of us could have done it. John was just a bit more protective of Hagrid than we were I guess." said Ron.

"Do you think Madam Pomfrey will find anything that might physically affect him?" Delilah asked.

"No, not really, I mean he woke up, made a joke, and you two jumped on him and he was happy about it. I think he's fine. Madam Pomfrey just doesn't like taking chances." said Harry.

* * *

As Dumbledore had requested, Harry, Ron left Hermione, Ginny and Delilah to head to the office at eleven o'clock. John was already there.

"Please, take a seat. We do have plenty to discuss." said Dumbledore.

The boys did so.

"First and foremost, John, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagall and I have agreed not to make your death and resurrection public knowledge. You can tell Miss Weasley, Miss Granger and Miss Dursley to keep it all between us. I'm sure you don't want the Daily Prophet hounding you." said Dumbledore.

"Definitely, thanks professor." said John.

"Any time. Now, with regards to what happened in the chamber, and what you did for the school, I'd say two hundred points each, and special awards for services to the school would be just the start on how I can repay you, regardless of how many rules you broke to do what you did. John, I would award you more points given your sacrifice, but as I said, I wouldn't want it to be public knowledge, and neither do you." said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling, causing the boys to beam.

"Now talk me through what happened." said Dumbledore.

"Well Riddle was a memory, but he could still talk. He called the basilisk, and Fawkes came in and tore into its eyes." John started.

"You three must have shown me true loyalty if Fawkes came to you." said Dumbledore.

"I just remembered what you said in Hagrid's hut." said John, with an uncharacteristic amount of humility.

"I hoped you would. Carry on." said Dumbledore.

"Well after that, John used himself as bait and... well... you know what happened to him, but we got that sword." said Harry, pointing at the bloody sword on the desk.

"I gave it to Ron, and he stabbed it in the mouth. To tell you the truth, I wasn't thinking straight. Ron pretty much did it all by himself." said Harry, looking proudly at Ron, whose ears were now scarlet.

"And what of Riddle's memory?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well I stabbed that diary with a fang, and he sort of... exploded." Ron said.

"Interesting. Very few people knew that Lord Voldemort was once Tom Riddle, but given that he was using such powerful magic at such a young age... no matter. Mr. Weasley, in light of what Harry and John are telling me, I think a further hundred points are in order, don't you?" Dumbledore asked.

"You won't hear any arguments professor!" said Ron, his eyes lighting up.

"I'm glad to hear it. Now Mr. Weasley, if you'd like to do me one last favour, please take this letter to the owlery and send it to Azkaban. We have caught the real culprit and I believe it is time for us to get our gamekeeper back." said Dumbledore, handing Ron said letter.

"Will do sir!" said Ron, happily heading to the owlery.

"Now Harry, you seem slightly troubled. Speak your mind." said Dumbledore.

"Well you see sir... I couldn't help but notice things... similarities between me and Riddle or Voldemort. He even said so himself, we're quite alike. I mean I can speak parseltongue, I have some of his personality traits... I feel like the sorting hat should have put me in Slytherin." said Harry.

"And yet you are in Gryffindor. Do you know why?" Dumbledore asked.

"Because I asked the hat to put me there." Harry said, glumly.

"Exactly Harry! Exactly! We are not defined by our abilities, but by our choices! Your choices are what set you apart from Voldemort. You choose the betterment of others, he chose to increase nothing but his own power. In any case, look closely at this." said Dumbledore, pointing at the sword.

On the blade, words could be seen carved into it.

Upon closer inspection, Harry realized that the sword belonged to Godric Gryffindor.

"Only a true Gryffindor would have this sword come to them in their time of need. And as for your ability to speak parseltongue, both of you, I think that the night he attacked your family, he may have transferred some of his powers to you. Not intentionally of course." said Dumbledore.

"Voldemort put a bit of himself inside us?" Harry asked.

"Wait a second..." said John.

"Yes?" Dumbledore asked.

"When I was dead, I saw a part of Voldemort's soul. Apparently it was a part of his soul that latched onto me, and it was sent there to die. That's why I could come back!" said John.

"Does that mean I have a part of Voldemort's soul inside me too?" Harry asked, alarmed.

"There is no way of verifying that. For you it may have simply been some of his abilities, for John it was part of his soul. Whatever the case, when the time comes, we will know." said Dumbledore, soothingly.

"Now, is there anything else you wish to discuss?" Dumbledore asked.

"Nope. We've covered all the ground I wanted to at least. Harry?" John asked.

"I'm good. Thank you professor." said Harry, before he and John headed towards the door. However, before they reached the door, it was already open. Lucius Malfoy was standing in it. Dobby was following him.

"Dobby? So this is your master! You serve the Malfoys!" said Harry.

"So, it's true. You have returned." said Malfoy, glaring at Dumbledore.

"Yes Lucius. In fact, when the governors told me that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been taken, the other eleven governors sent me a flurry of owls begging me to return, saying that I was the man to stop the attacks. They also said something about you threatening to curse their families." said Dumbledore. Malfoy went white for a moment before recovering.

"And? Was the person responsible caught?" Malfoy asked.

"Yes. It was the same person as last time. Lord Voldemort. Only this time, he acted through another. Ginny Weasley. She was not acting of her own volition. Imagine, if Harry, John and Ronald Weasley hadn't discovered this diary. No one would be able to prove that Miss Weasley wasn't acting of her own free will. Imagine if word got out that the daughter of Arthur Weasley was attacking muggleborn students. I daresay his muggle protection act would have been scrapped." said Dumbledore.

The cogs turned in Harry and John's heads and everything became clear.

"You put that diary into Ginny's cauldron! At Diagon Alley! You got me killed and almost got how many other killed? Because of a rule you didn't like?" John yelled, furiously.

"You are too clever for your own good Potter. But you can't prove it." said Malfoy.

"Oh, none of us can prove it. However, if any of Tom Riddle's old school things find their way into the possession of students, Arthur Weasley will track you down." Dumbledore said.

Malfoy huffed and without another word, turned and stalked away, Dobby in tow.

Harry, remembering that house elves would be freed by the presenting of clothes, had a plan.

"Professor, can I give that back to Mr. Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"It is of no danger any more, I don't see why not." said Dumbledore.

Working as quickly as he could, Harry took off his sock and put it in the diary.

John caught on to Harry's plan and jogged out of the office to get Mr. Malfoy.

"Mr. Malfoy, wait! Harry's got something for you, he's just on his way!" said John.

"Really? And what would that be?" Malfoy asked.

"Oh, just this." said Harry, coming from behind John and handing Malfoy the diary.

Malfoy didn't take his eyes of Harry and John whilst handing the diary to Dobby.

"You'd be best off not meddling in such affairs in future. Both of you. Your parents did just that, and you will meet the same. Sticky. End." said Malfoy, sinisterly.

"Keep telling yourself that." John said in a challenging manner.

Lucius Malfoy was absolutely not used to having someone so unapologetically challenge him at every turn, with no intimidation, especially John. He made a mental note to find a way to remedy his lack of fear at some point.

Before he could formulate any further thoughts, Dobby had opened the diary and spoke up.

"Master presented Dobby with a sock!" said Dobby.

"What no I didn-" Malfoy started, before looking in shock at Dobby, holding the sock.

"Master presented Dobby with clothes! Dobby is free!" said Dobby, gleefully.

"You lost me my servant!" Malfoy yelled, walking menacingly towards Harry and John, wand drawn.

"You shall not harm them!" Dobby said firmly, before blasting Malfoy back with magic from his bare hands.

"You like that? You want some more? Go ahead, try it!" John taunted.

With one last furious glare at Harry and John, Malfoy swiftly turned around and left the premises.

"You freed Dobby! Is there anything Dobby can do in return?" Dobby asked.

"Just... do what you want to do Dobby. But don't try to save our lives again." said Harry.

Dobby gave them a bright, toothy smile, before cracking his fingers and disappearing.

* * *

The feast that evening was easily the happiest feast in recent memory, due in no small part to Dumbledore publicly announcing that Harry, Ron and John had saved the school (again) and giving them all the house points he had promised (and by extension the house cup).

Harry couldn't tell what the best part was. Hagrid returning, exams being cancelled (Hermione wasn't happy), Lockhart no longer teaching, Lucius Malfoy being sacked as a governor and Draco Malfoy no longer strutting around as if he owned the place or the unanimous gratitude that he, John and Ron received from the students.

As promised, no one knew of John's death and resurrection, and John kept exactly what happened after his death completely to himself. He didn't want Harry to know that he had spoken to their parents, for fear of Harry feeling left out.

Sooner than they'd all have liked, it was time to once again board the Hogwarts express and return home. Harry gave Ron and Hermione the Dursley's telephone number, saying that he, John and Delilah couldn't stand having Dudley as the only other person their age to talk to.

"Your uncle and Aunt will be proud though won't they?" Hermione asked.

"Are you serious? If they knew that I died and didn't stay dead? They'd be furious!" said John, laughing.

* * *

For a man on the run, central wizarding London was hardly the best place to hide. However, Sirius Black was no ordinary convict. He was able to hide in plain sight, as a good-natured, but very large dog. However, upon hearding from the Daily Prophet what had happened at Hogwarts that year, and that his godsons and a friend of theirs had stopped it, he became resolute in finding the man who betrayed him. And one sunny afternoon in Diagon Alley, he found his first lead. A picture of Harry, John and Ron in the Daily prophet. They were all posing with their pets, Harry and John with their owls, and Ron with his rat.

Harry and John were in mortal danger this year and he couldn't protect them. He was glad that they'd inherited Lily and James' fighting spirit and resourcefulness, but he was determined to put himself in a position where he could watch over them freely. But to do that, he had to prove his innocence. And to do that, he had to find the rat. And the rat was with their friend. What a coincidence, that the very person he was looking for was already in close proximity to Harry and John.

But how best to get to him?

He was a coward. Sirius would use that against him. Maybe allow himself to be seen as a human, then hide away as a dog, and get Pettigrew all panicked. He'd stay closer to the Weasley boy than ever. Then he'd get into Hogwarts. Luckily, he remembered some of the secret passageways in and out of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. His nighttime adventures with his friends still proved useful.

Once he got the rat, he'd be able to finally be close to his godsons, finally able to look after them. Sirius looked back at the newspaper and the animagus in Ron's hand.

Even after all these years, he'd recognize that rat anywhere.


End file.
